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Cantdton  Inttituta  for  Historical  MIcroraproductiom  /  Imtitut  Canadian  de  microraprodHctiona  liiatoriquoa 


995 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notes  /  Notes  technique  et  bibliographiques 


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n 

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Q 
D 
D 
D 

D 


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Covers  damaged  / 
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Covers  restored  and/or  laminated  / 
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10X  UX  MX 


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to  tha  ganarotity  of: 

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L'axamplaira  film4  fut  raproduii  griea  t  la 
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or  llluatratad  impraaaion. 


Laa  imagaa  lulvantaa  ont  tti  raproduitaa  avac  la 
plua  grand  (oin,  compta  tanu  da  la  condition  at 
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conformita  avae  laa  conditiona  du  central  da 
fllmaga. 

Laa  axamplairaa  originaux  dont  la  couvartura  an 
papiar  aat  imprimta  sent  filmai  an  commancant 
par  la  pramiar  plat  at  an  tarminant  loit  par  la 
darnitra  paga  qui  comporta  una  amprainta 
d'impraaalon  ou  d'illuatratlon.  aoit  par  la  lacond 
plat,  aalon  la  eaa.  Toua  laa  autraa  axamplairaa 
originaux  aont  fllmto  an  commancant  par  la 
pramiara  paga  qui  comporta  una  amprainta 
d'impraaaion  ou  d'llluatration  at  an  tarminant  par 
la  darniara  paga  qui  comporta  una  talla 
amprainta. 


Tha  laat  racordad  frama  on  aach  microficha 
ahall  contain  tha  lymbol  ^^  I  moaning  "CON- 
TINUED"!, or  tha  symbol  V  Imaaning  "END"), 
whiehavar  appliaa. 


Un  daa  aymbolaa  suivanta  apparaitra  tur  la 
darnlAra  imaga  da  chaqua  microficha.  lalon  la 
caa:  la  aymbola  —^  aignifia  "A  SUIVRE",  la 
symbola  V  aignifia  "FIN". 


Mapa,  plaiaa,  charta,  ate,  may  ba  filmad  at 
diffarant  raduction  ratioa.  Thoaa  too  largo  to  ba 
antlraly  included  in  ona  axpoaura  ara  filmad 
baginning  in  tha  upper  left  hand  comer,  left  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  aa  many  framaa  aa 
required.  The  following  diagrama  illuatrate  the 
method: 


Lea  cartaa.  planchea.  tableaux,  etc..  pauvant  itra 
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et  do  haut  en  bea.  an  pranant  la  nombre 
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•yiE  CANADIAN 
•DOMINION    "- 


THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 


ABBAHAM  LINCOLN  EDITION 


VOLUME  49 

THE  CHRONICLES 

OF  AMERICA  SERIES 

ALLEN  JOHNSON 

EDITOR 

GERHARD  B.  LOMEB 

CHARLES  W.  JEFFERYS 

ASSISTANT  EDITORS 


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PRIME  MINISTERS  or  CANADA,  ISeT-mi!) 
Photographs. 


THE 
CANADIAN    DOMINION 

A  CHRONICLE  OF 

OUR  NORTHERN  NEIGHBOR 

BY  OSCAR  D.  SKELTON 


NEW  HAVEN:  YALE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

TORONTO:    GLASGOW.  BROOK  &  CO. 

LONDON:    HUMPHREY    MILFORD 

OXFORD    UNIVERSITY    PRESS 

1919 


1S2339 


^  f/elfoh  V. 


/OG^ 


Copyright,  1919,  by  Yak  Univeraiiy  Press 


PREFACE 

Thb  history  of  Canada  since  the  close  of  the  French 
rtgime  falls  into  three  clearly  marked  half  cen- 
turies.  The  first  fifty  years  after  the  Peace  of  Paris 
determined  that  Cauada  was  to  maintain  a  sepa- 
rate existence  under  the  British  flag  and  was  not  to 
become  a  fourteenth  colony  or  be  merged  with  the 
United  States.    The  second  fifty  years  brought  the 
winning  of  self-government  and  the  achievement 
I         of  Confederation.     The  third  fifty  years  witnessed 
the  expansion  of  the  Dominion  from  sea  to  sea  and 
the  endeavor  to  make  the  unity  of  the  political 
map  a  living  reality -the  endeavor  to  weld  the 
far-flung  provinces  into  one  country,   to  give 
Canada  a  distinctive  place  in  the  Empire  and  in 
the  world,  and  eventually  in  the  alliance  of  peo- 
ples banded  together  in  mankind's  greatest  task  of 
enforcing  peace  and  justice  among  nations. 

The  author  has  found  it  expedient  in  this  narra- 
tive to  depart  from  the  usual  method  of  these 


viii  PREFACE 

Chronicles  and  arrange  the  matter  in  chronological 
rather  than  in  biographical  or  topical  diviaiona. 
The  first  period  of  fifty  years  is  accordingly  covered 
in  one  chapter,  the  second  in  two  chapters,  and  the 
third  in  two  chapters.  Authorities  and  a  list  of 
publications  for  a  more  extended  study  will  be 
found  in  the  Bibliographical  Note. 

O.  D.  S. 

QuasK'i  Umrnain. 
KimwioH.  Cajtada, 
July,  1*19.     I 


CONTENTS 

I     THE  PIBST  PIFTY  YEARS  p,^      , 

II.    THE  PIGHT  POR  SELF-GOVERNMENT  ■•     j* 

III.  THE  UNION  ERA 

M 

IV.  THE  DAYS  OP  TRIAL  .,    ,„ 

147 

V.    THE  YEARS  OP  FULPILMENT  ■■    joo 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE  ..    „, 


nXUSTRATIONS 


PWME  MINISTERS  OP  CANADA.  IHT-I»1> 

CANADA:  TERRITORIAL  DEVELOPMENT 
AND  ORGANIZATION 
M«p.  in  two  Mctiou.  bjr  W.  L.  G.  J.»(,  of 
U*  AnwicM  G«g,.p|,i„l  Socirt,  f^^,  j^  „ 

SIR  ISAAC  BROCK 

Minuture   owned    by    Mu.   8m    MloUe. 
Toronto.  •    , 

LORD  SELKIRK 

Pninting  in  the  r.oiily  reddence  .t  St.  HuT'e 
Iile,  Scotland.  „ 

WILLIAM  LYON  MACKENZIE 

P»lntin«  by  J.  W.  L.  Ponter. 
LORD  DL'BHAM 

Prom  the  punting  by  Sir  TkonaiUwreoce.    " 

BOUNDARY    SETTLEMENTS     BETWEEN 
CANADA  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES 
Map  by  W    L.  G.  Joerg,  of  th.  Aoerian 
beographinl  Sodety. 

LOUIS  JOSEPH  PAPINEAU 

Portnit  in  the  Dominion  Archivei.  OtUw,. 


it 


7« 


too 


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THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 


CHAPTER  I 


THE  FIRST   FIPTT   TEAR8 

ScABCBLT  more  than  half  a  century  has  passed 
since  the  Dominion  of  Canada,  in  its  present  form, 
came  into  existence.  But  thrice  that  period  has 
elapsed  since  the  fateful  day  when  Montcalm  and 
Wolfe  laid  down  their  lives  in  battle  on  the  Plains 
of  Abraham,  and  the  lands  which  now  comprise 
the  Dominion  finally  passed  from  French  hands 
and  came  under  British  rule. 

The  Peace  of  Paris,  which  brought  the  Seven 
Years'  War  to  a  close  in  1763,  marked  the  termi- 
nation of  the  empire  of  France  in  the  New  World. 
Over  the  continent  of  North  America,  after  that 
peace,  only  two  flags  floated,  the  red  and  yellow 
banner  of  Spain  and  the  Union  Jack  of  Great 
BritAin.    Of  these  the  Union  Jack  held  jway  over 


«  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

by  far  the  larger  domain  —  over  the  vague  terri- 
tories about  Hudson  Bay,  over  the  great  valley 
of  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  over  all  the  lands  lying 
east  of  the  Mississippi,  save  only  New  Orleans. 
To  whom  it  would  fall  to  develop  this  vast  claim, 
what  mighty  empires  would  be  carved  out  of  the 
wilderness,  where  the  boundary  lines  would  run  be- 
tween the  nations  yet  to  be,  were  secrets  the  fu- 
ture held.  Yet  in  retrospect  it  is  now  clear  that  in 
solving  these  questions  the  Peace  of  Paris  played 
no  inconsiderable  part.  By  removing  from  the 
American  colonies  the  menace  of  French  aggres- 
sion from  the  north  it  relieved  them  of  a  sense  of 
dependence  on  the  mother  country  and  so  made 
possible  the  birth  of  a  new  nation  .'n  the  United 
States.  At  the  same  time,  in  the  northern  half 
of  the  continent,  it  made  possible  that  other  ex- 
periment in  democracy,  in  the  union  of  diverse 
races,  in  international  neighborliness,  and  in  the 
reconciliation  of  empire  with  liberty,  which  Canada 
presents  to  the  whole  world,  and  especially  to  her 
elder  sister  in  freedom. 

In  1763  the  territories  which  later  were  to 
make  up  the  Dominion  of  Canada  were  divided 
roughly  into  three  parts.  These  parts  had  little  or 
nothing  in  common.    They  shared  together  neither 


THE  FIRST  FIFTY  YEARS  3 

traditions  of  suffering  or  glory  nor  ties  of  blood  or 
trade.    Acadia,  or  Nova  Scotia,  by  the  Atlantic, 
was  an  old  French  colony,  now  British  for  over  a 
generation.    Canada,  or  Quebec,  on  the  St.  Law- 
rence and  the  Great  Lakes,  with  seventy  thousand 
French  habitants  and  a  few  hundred  English  camp 
foUowers,  had  just  passed  under  the  British  flag. 
West  and  north  lay  the  vaguely  outlined  domains 
of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  where  the  red 
mau  and  the  buffalo  still  reigned  supreme  and 
almost  unchallenged. 

The  old  colony  of  Acadia,  save  only  the  island 
outliers.  Cape  Breton  and  Prince  Edward  Island 
now  ceded  by  the  Peace  of  Paris,  had  been  in  Brit- 
Bh  hands  since  1713.    It  was  not,  however,  until 
1749  that  any  concerted  effort  had  been  made 
at  a  settlement  of  this  region.     The  menace  from 
the  mighty  fortress  which  the  French  were  reb  jf'd- 
ing  at  that  time  at  Louisbourg,  in  Cape  Breton 
and  the  hostility  of  the  restless  Acadians  or  old 
French  settlers  on  the  mainland,  had  compelled 
aetion  and  the  British  Government  departed  from 
Its  usual  policy  of  laissez  faire  in  matters  of  em- 
igration.    Twenty-five  hundred  English  settlers 
were  brought  out  to  found  and  hold  the  town  and 
fort  of  Halifax.    Nearly  as  many  Germans  were 


4  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

planted  in  Lunmburg,  where  their  descendants 
flourish  to  this  day.  Then  the  hapless  Acadians 
were  driven  into  exile  and  into  the  room  they 
left,  New  Englanders  of  strictest  Puritan  ancestry 
came,  on  their  own  initiative,  and  built  up  new 
communities  like  those  of  Massachusetts,  Connec- 
ticut, and  Bhode  Island.  Other  waves  of  volun- 
tary immigration  followed  —  Ulster  Presbyterians, 
driven  out  by  the  attempt  of  England  to  crush 
the  Irish  woolen  manufacture,  and,  still  later, 
Highlanders,  Roman  Catholic  and  Presbyterian, 
who  soon  made  Gaelic  the  prevailing  tongue  of 
the  easternmost  counties.  By  1767  the  colony 
of  Nova  Scotia,  which  then  included  all  Acadia, 
north  and  east  of  Maine,  had  a  prosperous  popu- 
lation of  some  seven  thousand  Americans,  two 
thousand  Irish,  two  thousand  Germans,  barely  a 
thousand  English,  and  well  over  a  thousand  surviv- 
ing Acadian  French.  In  short,  this  northernmost 
of  the  Atlantic  colonies  appeared  to  be  fast  on  the 
way  to  become  a  part  of  New  England.  It  was 
chiefly  New  Englanders  who  had  peopled  it,  and  it 
was  with  New  England  that  for  many  a  year  its 
whole  social  and  commercial  intercourse  was  carried 
on.  It  was  no  accident  that  Nova  Scotia  later 
produced  the  first  Yankee  humorist,  "Sam  SKck." 


THE  FIRST  FIFTY  YEARS  5 

With  the  future  sister  province  of  Canada,  or 
Quebec,  which  lay  along  the  St.  Lawrence  as  far 
as  the  Great  Lakes,  Acadia  or  Nova  Scotia  had 
much  less  in  common  than  with  New  England 
Hundreds  of  miles  of  unbroken  forest  wilderness 
lay  between  the  two  colonies,  and  the  sea  lanes 
ran  between  the  St.  Lawrence,  the  Bay  of  Pundy 
or  Halifax  and  Havre  or  Plymouth,  and  not  be^ 
tween  Quebec  and  Halifax.   Even  the  French  set- 
tlers came  of  different  stocks.    The  Acadians  were 
chiefly  men  of  La  Rochelle  and  the  Loire,  while 
the  Canadians  came,  for  the  most  part,  from  the 
wast  provinces  stretching  from  Normandy  and 
Picardy  to  Poitou  and  Bordeaux. 

The  situation  in  Canada  proper  presented  the 
British  authorities  with  a  problem  new  in  their 
imperial  experience.     Hitherto,  save  for  Acadia 
and  New  Netherland,  where  the  settlers  were  few 
m  numbers  and,  even  in  New  Netherland,  closely 
akin  to  the  conquerors  in  race,  religion,  and  speech, 
no  colony  containing  men  of  European  stocks  had 
been  acquired  by  conquest.  Canada  held  some  sixty 
or  seventy  thousand  settlers.  French  and  Catholic 
almost  to  a  man.   Despite  the  ineflSciency  of  French 
colonial  methods  the  plantation  had  taken  firm 
root.    The  colon^  had  developed  a  strength,  a 


«  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

social  structure,  and  an  individuality  all  it*  own. 
Along  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Richelieu  the  set- 
tlements lay  close  and  compact;  the  habitants' 
whitewashed  cottages  lined  the  river  banks  only  a 
few  arpentt  apart.  The  social  cohesion  of  the 
colony  was  equally  marked.  Alike  in  government, 
in  religion,  and  in  industry,  it  was  a  land  where 
authority  was  strong.  Govemo"-  and  intendant, 
feudal  seigneur,  bishop  and  Jesuit  superior,  ruled 
each  in  his  own  sphere  and  provided  a  rigid  mold 
and  framework  for  the  growth  of  the  colony.  There 
were,  it  is  true,  limits  to  the  reach  of  the  arm  of 
authority.  Beyond  Montreal  stretched  a  vast  wil- 
derness merging  at  some  uncertain  point  into  the 
other  wilderness  that  was  Louisiana.  Along  the 
waterways  which  threaded  this  great  No  Man's 
Land  the  coureurs-de-boit  roamed  with  little  heed 
to  law  or  license,  glad  to  escape  from  the  paternal 
strictness  that  irked  youth  on  the  lower  St.  Law- 
rence. But  the  liberty  of  these  rovers  of  the  for- 
est was  not  liberty  after  the  English  pattern;  the 
coureuT-de-bou  was  of  an  entirely  different  type 
from  the  pioneers  of  British  stock  who  were  even 
then  pushing  their  way  through  the  jjaps  in  the 
AUeghanies  and  making  homes  in  the  backwoods. 
Priest  and  seigneur,  habitant  and  coureur-de-boit. 


THE  FIRST  FIFTY  YEARS  7 

!  one  and  all  difficult  to  fit  into  accepted  Eng- 

Ml  ways.    Clearly  Canada  promised  to  strain  the 

digestive  capacity  of  the  British  lion. 
The  present  western  provinces  of  tb  ,  Dominion 

were  still  the  haunt  of  India,  and  buffalo.   French- 

Canadian  explorers  and  f  m  traders,  it  is  true,  had 
penetrated  to  the  Rockies  a  few  years  before  the 
Conquest,  and  had  built  forts  on  Lake  Winnipeg, 
on  the  Assiniboine  and  Red  rivers,  and  at  half  a 
dozen  portages  on  the  Saskatchewan.  But  the 
"Company  of  Adventurers  of  England  trading  in- 
to Hudson's  Bay"  had  not  yet  ventured  inland, 
ttill  content  to  carry  on  its  trade  with  the  Indiana 
from  its  forts  along  the  shores  of  that  great  sea. 
On  the  Pacific  the  Russians  had  coasted  as  far 
south  as  Mount  Saint  EBas,  but  no  white  man.  so 
far  as  is  known,  had  set  foot  on  the  shores  of  what 
is  now  British  Columbia. 

Two  immediate  problems  were  bequeathed  to 
the  British  Government  by  the  Treaty  of  Paris: 
what  was  to  be  done  with  the  unsettled  lands 
between  the  AUeghanies  and  the  Mississippi;  and 
how  were  the  seventy  thousand  French  subjects 
in  the  valley  of  the  St.  Lawrence  to  be  dealt  with? 
The  first  difficulty  was  not  solved.    It  was 


W  ' 


8  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

merely  postponed.  The  whole  back  country  of 
the  English  colonies  was  proclaimed  an  Indian 
reserve  where  the  King's  white  subjects  might 
trade  but  might  not  acquire  land.  This  policy 
was  not  devised  in  order  to  set  bounds  to  the  ex- 
pansion of  the  older  colonies;  that  was  an  after- 
thought. The  policy  had  its  toot  in  an  honest 
desire  to  protect  the  Indians  from  the  frauds  of 
unscrupulous  traders  and  from  the  encroachments 
of  settlers  on  their  hunting  grounds.  The  need 
of  a  conciliatory,  if  firm,  policy  in  regard  to  the 
great  interior  was  made  evident  by  the  Pontiac 
rising  in  1768,  the  aftermath  of  the  defeat  of  the 
French,  who  had  done  all  they  could  to  inspire  the 
Indians  with  hatred  for  the  advancing  English. 

How  to  deal  with  Canada  was  a  more  thorny 
problem.  The  colony  had  not  been  sought  by 
its  conquerors  for  itself.  It  was  coui'ed  of  little 
worth.  The  verdict  of  its  late  possessors,  as  re- 
corded in  Voltaire's  light  farewell  to  "  a  few  arpents 
of  snow,"  might  be  discounted  as  an  instance  of 
sour  grapes;  but  the  estimate  of  its  new  possessors 
was  evidently  little  higher,  since  they  debated  lon^ 
and  dubiously  whether  in  the  peace  settlement  they 
should  retain  Canada  or  the  little  sugar  island  of 
Guadeloupe,  a  mere  pin  point  on  the  map.   Canada 


THE  FIRST  FIFTY  YEABS  g 

had  been  conquered  not  for  the  good  it  might 
bring  but  for  the  harm  it  wm  doing  as  a  base  for 
French  attack  upon  the  English  colonies  —  "the 
wasps*  nest  must  be  smoked  out."  But  once  it  had 
been  taken,  it  had  to  be  dealt  with  for  itself. 

The  policy  first  adopted  was  a  simple  one.  nat- 
ural enough  for  eighteenth-century  Englishmen. 
They  decided  to  make  Canada-  over  in  the  image 
of  the  old  colonies,  to  turn  the  "new  subjects," 
as  they  were  called,  in  good  time  uito  English- 
men and  Protestants.    A  generation  or  two  would 
suffice,  in  the  phrase  of  Francis  Mas^res  —  himself 
a  descendant  of  a  Huguenot  refugee  but  now  wholly 
an  Englishman  —  for  "melting  down  the  French 
nation  into  the  English  in  point  of  language,  af- 
fections, religion,  and  laws."     Immigration  was  to 
be  encouraged  from  Britain  and  from  the  other 
American  colonies,  which,  in  the  view  of  the  Lords 
of  Trade,  were  ah-eady  overstocked  and  in  dan- 
ger of  being  forced  by  the  scaicity  or  monopoly 
of  land  to  take  up  manufactures  which  would 

•  The  Royal  Prodamation  of  1763  Kt  the  bound,  of  the  new  colony 
^y  were  surprisingly  narrow,  a  mere  itrip  along  both  .id»  of  the 
St.  Lawrence  from  a  short  di.tance  beyond  the  OtUwa  on  the  west 
to  Uie  end  of  the  Gasp*  peninsula  on  the  east.  The  land  to  the  north- 
east  was  put  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Governor  of  Newfound- 
Und,  and  the  Great  Lakes  region  was  included  in  the  territory  reserved 
for  the  Indians. 


i)    II 


10  THE  CANADUN  DOMINION 

compete  with  Engluh  ware*.    And  since  it  would 
greatly  contribute  to  speedy  settlement,  so  the 
Royal  Proclamation  of  1768  declared,  that  the 
King's  subjects  should  be  informed  of  his  paternal 
care  for  the  security  of  their  liberties  and  proper- 
ties, it  was  promised  that,  as  soon  as  circumstances 
would  permit,  a  General  Assembly  would  be  sum- 
moned, as  in  the  older  colonies.    The  laws  of  Eng- 
land, civil  and  criminal,  as  near  as  might  be, 
were  to  prevail.    The  Roman  Catholic  subjecta 
were  to  be  free  to  profess  their  own  religion,  "so 
far  as  the  laws  of  Great  Britain  permit,"  but  they 
were  to  be  shown  a  better  way.     To  the  first 
Governor  instructions  were  issued  "that  all  pos- 
sible Encouragement  shall  be  given  to  the  erect- 
ing Protestant  Schools  in  the  said  Districts,  Town- 
ships and  Precincts,  by  settling  and  appointing 
and  allotting  proper  Quantities  of  Land  for  that 
Purpose  and  abo  for  a  Glebe  and  Maintenance 
for  a  Protestant  minister  and  Protestant  school- 
masters."  Thus  in  the  fullness  of  time,  like  Acadia, 
but  without  any  Evangeline  of  Grand  Pt6,  without 
any  drastic  policy  of  expulsion,  impossible  with 
seventy  thousand  people  scattered  over  a  wide  area, 
even  Canada  would  become  a  good  English  land, 
a  newer  New  England. 


THE  PIHST  FIFTY  YEARS  „ 

It  »  que.tion.bIe  whether  thi.  policy  could  ever 

h.ve  thieved  .ucce«  even  it  it  ZZn  ^LZ 

for  «ener.Uon.  without  re.t  or  tunung.    Zt 

w^notd^tinedtobegiven-Io^gtrill.    C 
the  very  begmning  the  men  on  the  ,pot.  the  «,! 

tZ  "^T""  "'  ^-•^•'  ^<^  "  e^tii^y  ^ 
^y  pohcy  on  the  Home  Government,  .nd  the 
pressure  of  event,  soon  brought  His  Majesty's 
Ministers  to  concur.  ^ 

As  the  first  civil  Governor  of  Canada,  the  British 
.ulionties  chose  General  Murray,  one  of  Wolfe', 
ab  «t  lieutenants,  who  since  1760  had  served  „ 
mihtary  Governor  of  the  Quebec  district.    He  wa. 
to  be  aided  in  his  task  by  a  council  composed  of 
the  Lieutenant  Governors  of  Montreal  and  Three 
Rivers,  the  Chief  Justice,  the  head  of  the  custom^ 
and  e^ht  citizens  to  be  named  by  the  Governor 
from     the  most  considerable  of  the  persons  of 
property"  in  the  province. 

The  new  Governor  was  a  blunt,  soldierly  man 
upright  and  just  according  to  his  lights,  but  deeply 
-flueneed  by  his  military  and  aristocraUo  leL- 
mgs.  Statesmen  thousands  of  mil^  away  might 
p  an  to  encourage  English  settlers  and  Englishl- 
htical  ways  and  to  put  down  all  that  was  Pren^ 
To  the  man  on  the  spot  English  settlers  me.nt 


>H 


m 


rr 


'.  A 


U  1HE  CANADIAN  DOBI7NION 

"the  four  hundred  mnd  fifty  contemptible  lutlert 
snd  trtden"  who  had  come  in  the  wake  (.r  die 
army  from  New  England  and  New  York,  with  no 
proper  respect  for  their  betters,  and  vulgarly  and 
annoyingly  insistent  upon  what  they  claimed  to 
be  their  rights.  The  French  might  be  alien  m 
speech  and  creed,  but  at  least  the  seigneurs  and 
the  higher  clergy  were  gentlemen,  wich  a  due  re- 
spect for  authority,  the  King's  and  their  own,  and 
the  habitants  were  docile,  the  best  of  soldier  stuff. 
"Little,  very  little,"  Murray  wrote  in  1784  to  the 
Lords  of  Trade,  "will  content  the  New  Subjects, 
but  nothing  will  satisfy  the  Licentious  Fanaticks 
Trading  here,  but  the  expulsion  of  the  Canadians, 
who  are  perhaps  the  bravest  and  best  race  upon 
the  Globe,  a  Race,  who  cou'd  they  be  indulged 
with  a  few  priviledges  wch  the  Laws  of  England 
deny  to  Roman  Catholicks  at  home.  wn-:'d  soon 
get  the  better  of  every  National  Antipathy  to  their 
Conquerors  and  become  the  most  faithful  and  most 
useful  set  of  Men  in  this  American  Empire."' 
Certainly  there  was  much  in  the  immediate 

'  TUf  quoUtioD  ud  thoM  Mowing  in  thu  chapter  an  (ram  offlcisl 
documenta  moat  conveniently  aaa^iibled  in  Shortt  and  Doughty, 
DoamtnU  relaHng  to  the  Cmitilutimal  Hutory  of  Canada,  1769- 
1791,  and  Doughty  and  McArthur.  DonmnUi  nlaling  lo  Uu  Cm- 
MuHmul  Bulani  (f[  Canada,  1791-1818. 


THE  FIBST  FIFTY  YEAB8  is 

•itiuUon  to  juitify  Murray',  mttitude.    It  wm  pre. 
P«t«wu  to  .et  up  m  legialature  in  which  <»1« 
the  four  hundred  Prote.t«nu  might  lit  ud  from 
which  the  leventy  thou.«nd  Ctholic  would  be 
bwred.    It  would  h«ve  been  difficult  in  any  cue 
to  change  .uddenly  the  .ystem  of  laws  governing 
the  most  intimate  transactions  of  everyday  life 
But  when,  as  happened,  the  Administration  was 
entnisted  in  large  part  to  newly  created  justice, 
of  the  peace,  men  with  "little  French  and  less 
honour."  "to  whom  it  is  only  possible  to  speak 
with  guineas  in  one's  hand."  the  change  became 
flatly  impossible.    Such  an  alteration,  if  stUl  in- 
suted  upon,  must  come  more  slowly  than  the 
impatient  traders  in  Montreal  and  Quebec  desired. 
Th«  British  Government,  however,  was  not  yet 
ready  to  abandon  its  policy.    The  Quebec  traders 
petiUoned  for  Murray's  recall    alleging  that  the 
measures  required  to  encourage  settlei„ent  had  not 
been  adopted,  that  the  Governor  was  encouraging 
factions  by  his  partiality  to  the  French,  that  he 
treated  the  traders  with  "a  Rage  and  Rudeness 
of  Language  and  Demeanor"  and  -  a  fair  thrust 
in  return  for  his  reference  to  them  as  "the  most 
unmoral  collection  of  men  I  ever  knew  "  ~  as  "dis- 
comitenancing  the  Protestant  Religion  by  almost 


r 


U  f 


U  THE  CANADUN  DOMINION 

a  Total  Neglect  of  Attendance  upon  the  Service  of 
the  Church."  When  the  London  business  corre- 
spondents of  the  traders  backed  up  this  petition, 
the  Government  gave  heed.  In  xTeO  Murray  was 
recalled  to  England  and,  though  he  was  acquitted 
of  the  charges  against  him,  he  did  not  return  to 
his  post  in  Canada. 

The  triumph  of  the  English  merchants  was  short. 
They  had  jumped  from  the  frying  pan  into  the 
fire.  General  Guy  Carleton,  Murray's  successor 
and  brother  officer  under  Wolfe,  was  an  even  abler 
man,  and  he  was  still  less  in  sympathy  with  de- 
mocracy of  the  New  England  pattern.  Moreover,  a 
new  factor  had  come  in  to  reinforce  the  soldier's 
instinctive  preference  for  gentlemen  over  shop- 
keepers. The  first  rumblings  of  the  American 
Revolution  had  reached  Quebec.  It  was  no  time, 
in  Carleton's  view,  to  set  up  another  sucking  re- 
public. Rather,  he  believed,  the  utmost  should 
be  made  of  the  opportunity  Canada  afforded  as  a 
barrier  against  the  advance  of  democracy,  a  curb 
upon  colonial  insolence.  The  need  of  cultivating 
the  new  subjects  was  the  greater,  Carleton  con- 
tended, because  the  plan  of  settlement  by  Eng- 
lishmen gave  no  sign  of  succeeding:  "barring  a 
Catastrophe  shocking  to  think  of,  this  Country 


THE  FIRST  FIFTY  YEARS  jg 

cJS^t^"''   ''"'   ^''"'^''""  ^''-'y   t°  England. 
Carleton  propose  i  to  ,vork  chiefly  through  thel 

old  leaders,  the  se;,.eurs  ...d  the  cC    h! 
would  restore  to  U,e  people  their  old  syln,  of 
aws.  both  eivi,  and  orinalnai.     He  would  coll 
he  se^neurs  m  their  feudal  dues  and  fines,  which 
he  habitants  were  growing  slack  in  paying  nlw 
that  the  old  penalties  were  not  enforced!  and  hi 
would  g.ve  then,  honors  and  emoluments  such  as 
they  had  before  enjoyed   as  officers   in  regula^ 
or  m  J.t.a  regiments.     The  Roman  Catholic  cEgy 
were  already,  m  fact,  confirmed  in   their  rigS 
to  fthe  and  toll;  and.  without  obiection  from  1 
Governor.  B.hop  Briand.  elected  by  the  chapter 
m  Quebec  and  consecrated  in  Paris,  once  more 
assumed  control  over  the  flock. 

Carleton's  proposals  did  not  pass  unquestioned. 
H.S  own  ch.ef  legal  adviser.  Francis  Maseres.  was 
a  sturdy  adherent  of  the  older  policy,  though  he 
agreed  that  the  time  was  not  yet  ripe  for  set! 
tmg  up  an  Assembly  and  suggested  some  well-con- 
Sidered  compromise  between  the  old  laws  and  the 
new.  The  Advocate  General  of  England.  James 
Marriott,  urged  the  same  course.    The  polic^ 


i 


16  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINtON 

of  1768,  he  contended  eleven  years  later,  had 
already  succeeded  in  great  measure.  The  assimi- 
lation of  government  had  been  effected;  an  as- 
similation of  manners  would  follow.  The  exces- 
sive military  spirit  of  the  inhabitants  had  begun 
to  dwindle,  as  England's  interest  required.  The 
back  settlements  of  New  York  and  Canada  were 
fast  being  joined.  Two  or  three  thousand  men  of 
British  stock,  many  of  them  men  of  substance, 
had  gone  to  the  new  colony;  warehouses  and 
foundries  were  being  built;  and  many  of  the  prin- 
cipal seigneuries  had  passed  into  English  hands. 
All  that  was  needed,  he  concluded,  was  persistence 
along  the  old  path.  The  same  view  was  of  course 
strenuously  urged  by  the  English  merchants  in  the 
colony,  who  continued  to  demand,  down  to  the 
very  eve  of  the  Revolution,  an  elective  Assembly 
and  other  rights  of  freebom  Britons. 

Carleton  carried  the  day.  His  advice,  tendered 
at  close  range  during  four  years'  absentee  residence 
in  London,  from  1770  to  1774,  fell  in  with  the  mood 
of  Lord  North's  Government.  The  measure  in 
which  the  new  policy  was  embodied,  the  famous 
Quebec  Act  of  1774,  was  essentially  a  part  of  the 
ministerial  programme  for  strengthening  British 
power  to  cope  with  the  resistance  then  rising  to 


17 


THE  FIRST  FIFTY  YEARS 
rebellious  heights  in  the  old  colonies.    Though 
not  as  was  long  believed,  designed  in  reteliaUon 
for  the  Boston  disturbances,  it  is  clear  that  ito 
framers  had  Massachusetts  in  mind  when  decid- 
ing on  their  policy  for  Quebec.    The  m«n  purpose 
of  the  Act,  the  motive  which  turned  the  scale 
agamst  the  old  Anglicizing  policy,  was  to  attach 
the  leaders  of  French-Canadian  opinion  firmly  to 
tte  Bm.sh  Crown,  and  thus  not  only  to  preLt 
Canada  itself  from  becoming  infected  with  demo- 

waticcontagionorturninginacrisis  toward  Prance, 
but  to  ensure,  if  the  worst  came  to  the  worst, 
a  m.htary  base  in  that  northland  whose  terror* 
had  m  old  days  kept  the  seaboard  colom'es  cir- 
cumspectly loyal.    Ministers  in  London  had  been 
driven  by  events  to  accept  Carleton's  paradox,  that 
to  make  Quebec  British,  it  must  be  prevented 
from  becoming  English.    If  in  later  years  the 
sohdarity  and  aloofness  of  the  French-Canadian 
people  were  sometimes  to  prove  inconvenient  to 
Bmish  mterests.  it  was  always  to  be  remembered 
that  this  situation  was  due  in  great  part  to  the  de- 
hb«ate  action  of  Great  BriUin  in  strengthening 
French-Canadian  institutions  as  a  means  of  ad 
vancmg  what  she  considered  her  own  interests  in 
America.     "The  views  of  the  British  Government 


|i  -i.i 


18  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

in  respect  to  the  political  uses  to  which  it  means 
to  make  Canada  subservient,"  Marriott  had  truly 
declared,  "must  direct  the  spirit  of  any  code 
of  laws." 

The  Quebec  Act  multiplied  the  area  of  ihe  col- 
ony sevenfold  by  the  restoration  of  all  Labrador 
on  the  east  and  the  region  west  as  far  as  the  Ohio 
and  the  Mississippi  and  north  to  the  Hudson's 
Bay  Company's  territory.  It  restored  the  old 
French  civil  law  but  continued  the  milder  English 
criminal  law  already  in  operation.  It  gave  to  the 
Roman  Catholic  inhabitants  the  free  exercise  of 
their  religion,  subject  to  a  modified  oath  of  alle- 
giance, and  confirmed  the  clergy  in  their  right  "to 
hold,  receive  and  enjoy  their  accustomed  dues  and 
rights,  with  respect  to  such  persons  only  as  shall 
confess  the  said  religion."  The  promised  elective 
Assembly  was  noi  granted,  but  a  Council  appointed 
by  the  Crown  received  a  measure  of  legislative 
power. 

On  his  return  to  Canada  in  September,  1774, 
Carleton  reported  that  the  Canadians  had  "testi- 
fied the  strongest  marks  of  Joy  and  Gratitude  and 
Fidelity  to  their  King  and  to  His  Government 
for  the  late  Arrangements  made  at  Home  in 
their  Favor."     The  "most  respectable  part  of  the 


THE  FIRST  FIFTY  YEARS  jp 

EngM."  he  continued,  urged  pe««.ful  acceptance 
ofU^eneworder    Evidently.however.theipe.^ 
able  men.be«  of  society  were  few.  as  the  Zt 
^y  of  the  Eu,^h  settlers  Joined  in  a  pi 
tion  for  the  repeal  of  the  Act  on  the  ground  that 
>t  depnved  the.  of  the  incalculable  benefit 
habeas  corpus  and  trial  by  Jury.     The  Montreal 
-erchan  s.  whether,  as  Carleton  commented,  they 
were  of  a  more  turbulent  Turn,  or  that  they 
caught  the  Fire  from  some  Colonist,  settled  amoj 
them      were  particularly  outspoken  in  the  town 
-e;ngs  they  held.     In  the  older  colomes  tho" 

h^r^"""""^"""'^*'^-     A'-Actwhifh 
hemmed  them  m  to  the  seacoast,  establbhed  on 

a?d  ^rr°/"*""*  '^  ''''"'^''  '""^y  ^-^d 
Item  1  ""'^r*"'"-'  -  -t-ratic  political 
system,  appeared  to  many  to  be  the  undoing  of 
the  work  of  P,tt  and  Wolfe  and  the  revival  on  the 
bank,  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Mississippi  „ 
a  senous  menace  to  their  liberty  and  progress 

Then  came  the  clash  at  Lexington,  and  the  War 
of Americanlndependencehad begun.    Thecauses 
the  course,  and  the  ending  of  that  great  civil  2 
have  been  treated  elsewhere  in  this  s^-ies..    HeZ 


w 


I- 


»  THE  CANADUN  DOMINION 

it  ia  necesaarjr  only  to  note  iu  bearings  on  the  f«te 

of  Canada. 

Early  in  1776  the  Continental  Congress  under- 
took the  conquest  of  Canada,  or,  as  it  was  more 
diplomaticaUy  phrased,  the  relief  of  its  inhabit- 
ants from  British  tyranny.    Richard  Montgomery 
led  an  expedition  over  the  old  route  by  Lake  Cham- 
pkin  and  the  Richelieu,  along  which  French  and 
Indian  raiding  parties  used  to  pass  years  before, 
and  Benedict  Arnold  made  a  daring  and  difficult 
march  up  the  Kennebec  and  down  the  Chau- 
diire  to  Quebec.     Montreal  fell  to  Montgomery; 
and  Carleton  himself  escaped  capture  only  by  the 
audacity  of  some  French-Canadian  voyageura,  who, 
under  cover  of  darkness,  rowed  his  whaleboat  or 
paddled  it  with  their  hands  silenUy  past  the  Ameri- 
can sentinels  on  the  shore.     Once  down  the  river 
and  in  Quebec,  Carleton  threw  himself  with  vig- 
or and  skill  into  the  defense  of  his  capital.     His 
generalship  and  the  natural  strength  of  the  posi- 
tion proved  more  than  a  match  for  Montgomery 
and  Arnold.    Montgomery  was  killed  and  Arnold 
wounded  in  a  vain  attempt  to  carry  the  city  by 
storm  on  the  last  night  of  1775.    At  Montreal  a 
delegation  from  Congress,  composed  of  Benjamin 
Franklin,  Samuel  Chase,  and  Charles  Carroll  of 


1 


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mit,^ 

r  if  A^Crt^dLz:  ' 

ft. /V^^^TT*»4«(m 

/Ajr^ 

pp 

L'I895  ^/J^\^ 

k\ 

EVELOPMENT  AND  ORGANIZATION,  U 


"Su^-rT'^-'^     N..   /■  -1 

^^^'     ^^ 

^^^^ 

N  W  ^ 

^"^It^A  ^-^\     ^ 

"^^y 

viT^^^f&x         ® 

^-JL*/«. 

z*tf^5 — ^'^^w. 

'^yps: 

s^Jl^^-^'V^^L^ 

*"9^U 

'  l^r^L^i^'f^^^^' 

!if3i->^ 

^C"--? '  '.'^^i3«ii'  o 

V  ~^^i&l_'*Jc^.^^3^8^   *• 

1      t,    ;  ^^f^^y\  f^        3>^ 

i^    \i  1  ^r  y\r»sa:=i.-. 

jtAHia  ■in  Lrm  n 


THE  FIBST  FIFTY  YEARS  g, 

CarroUton.  accompanied  by  CarroU's  brother,  a  Jes- 
uit pnest  and  a  future  archbishop,  failed  to  achieve 
more  by  diplomacy  than  their  generals  had  done 
by  the  sword.    The  Canadians  seemed  content 
enough  to  wear  the  British  yolce.    In  the  spring 
when  a  British  fleet  arrived  with  reenforcemente. 
the  American  troops  retired  in  haste  and.  before 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  had  been  pro- 
daimed  Canada  was  free  from  the  last  of  its  ten 
taousand  mvaders. 

The  e^edition  had  put  Carleton's  policy  to  the 
test.    On  the  whole  it  stood  the  strain.    The 
seigneurs  had  rallied  to  the  Government  which 
had  restored  their  rights,  and  the  clergy  had  called 
on  the  people  to  stand  fast  by  the  King.    So  far 
aU  went  as  Carleton  had  hoped:  "The  Noblesse 
Ctergy.  and  greater  part  of  the  Bourgeoisie."  he 
wrote,     have  given  Govermnent  every  Assistance 
m  their  Power."    But  the  habitants  refused  to 
follow  their  appointed  leaders  with  the  old  docil- 
ity, and  some  even  mobbed  the  seigneurs  who  tried 
to  enroll  them.     Ten  years  of  freedom  had  worked 
a  democratic  change  in  them,  and  they  were  much 
ess  enthusiastic  than  their  betters  about  the  res- 
toration of  seigneurial  privileges.     Carleton.  like 
many  another,  had  held  as  public  opinion  what 


22  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

were  merely  the  opinions  of  those  whom  he  met 
at  dinner.    "These  people  had  been  governed 
with  too  loose  a  rein  for  many  years,"  he  now  wrote 
to  Burgoyne,  "and  had  imbibed  too  much  of  the 
American  Spirit  of  Licentioxisness  and  Independ- 
ence administered  by  a  numerous  and  turbulent 
Faction  here,  to  be  suddenly  restored  to  a  proper 
and  desirable  Subordination."    A  few  of  the  habit- 
ants joined  his  forces;  fewer  joined  the  invaders 
or  sold  them  supplies  —  till  they  grew  suspicious 
of  paper  "Continentals."    But  the  majority  held 
passively  aloof.     Even  when  France  joined  the 
warring  colonies  and  Admiral  d'Estaing  appealed 
to  the  Canadians  to  rise,  they  did  not  heed;  though 
it  is  difficult  to  say  what  the  result  would  have 
been  if  Washington  had  agreed  to  Lafayette's 
plan  of  a  joint  French  and  American  invasion 
in  1778. 

Nova  Scotia  also  held  aloof,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  many  of  the  men  who  had  come  from  New 
England  and  from  Ulster  were  eager  to  join  the 
colonies  to  the  south.  In  Nova  Scotia  democracy 
was  a  less  hardy  plant  than  in  Massachusetts. 
The  town  and  township  institutions,  which  had 
been  the  nurseries  of  resistance  in  New  England, 
had  not  been  allowed  to  take  root  there.     The 


THE  FIRST  FIFTY  YEARS  ss 

circumstances  of  the  founding  of  Halifax  had  given 
nw  to  a  greater  tendency,  which  lasted  long,  to 
leanuponthemothercountry.  The  Maine  wilder- 
ness made  intercourse  between  Nova  Scotia  and 
New  England  difficult  by  land,  and  the  British 
fleet  was  in  control  of  the  sea  until  near  the  close 
of  the  war.  Nova  Scotia  stood  by  Great  Britain, 
and  was  reserved  to  become  part  of  a  northern 
nation  still  in  the  making. 

That  nation  was  to  owe  its  separate  existence 
to  the  success  of  the  American  Revolution.     But 
for  that  event,  coming  when  it  did,  the  stru  glinx 
coWs  of  Quebec  and  Nova  Scotia  would  in 
tmie  have  become  merged  with  the  colonies  to  the 
south  and  would  have  followed  them,  whether 
they  remained  within  the  British  Empire  or  not. 
Thus  It  was  due  to  the  quarrel  between  the  thir- 
teen  colonies  and  the  motheriand  that  Canada 
did  not  become  merely  a  fourteenth  colony  or 
state.     Nor  was  this  the  only  bearing  of  the  Revo- 
lution on  Canada's  destiny.     Thanks  to  the  com- 
mg  of  the  Loyalists,  those  exiles  of  the  Revo- 
lution who  settled  in  Canada  in  large  numbers, 
Canada  was  after  all  to  be  dominantly  a  land  of 
English  speech  and  of  English  sympathies.    By 
one  of  the  many  paradoxes  which  mark  the  history 


24  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

of  Canada,  the  very  succesi  of  the  plan  which 
aimed  to  save  British  power  by  confirming  French- 
Canadian  nationality  and  the  loyalty  of  the  French 
led  in  the  end  to  making  a  large  part  of  Canada 
English.  The  Revolution  meant  also  that  for 
many  a  year  those  in  authority  in  England  and 
in  Canada  itself  were  to  stand  in  fear  of  the  prin- 
ciples and  institutions  which  had  led  the  old  colo- 
nies to  rebellion  and  separation,  and  were  to  try 
to  build  up  in  Canada  buttresses  against  the 
advance  of  democracy. 


The  British  statesmen  who  helped  to  frame  the 
Peace  of  1788  were  men  with  broad  and  generous 
views  as  to  the  future  of  the  seceding  colonies  and 
their  relations  with  the  mother  country.  It  was 
perhaps  inevitable  that  they  should  have  given 
less  thought  to  the  future  of  the  colonies  in  Am  ;r- 
ica  which  remained  under  the  British  flag.  Few 
men  could  realize  at  the  moment  that  out  of  these 
scattered  fragments  a  new  nation  and  a  second 
empire  would  arise.  Not  only  were  the  seceding 
colonies  given  a  share  in  the  fishing  grounds  of 
Newfoundland  and  Nova  Scotia,  which  was  un- 
fortunately to  prove  a  constant  source  of  friction, 
but  the  boundary  line  was  drawn  with  no  thought 


THE  PIHST  FIFTY  ^-EARS  «, 

of  the  nml  of  bn»d  and  ea.y  communicaUon 
between  Nov.  Scoti.  and  Canada,  much  less^ 

JZCt'^'''''^''^-  Va^uedefin^io^ 
of  the  boundaries,  naturally  incident  to  the  pre- 
vaJmg  lack  of  geographical  knowledge  of  ^e  Zt 

-^e^'theldfurtheraeedsoftroubrThe.er 
tent,ons.  however,  were  far  in  the  future.  At  the 
moment  another  defect  of  the  treaty  p„>ved  to  be 
^ada  s  ga,n      The  failure  of  Lord  Shelbume- 

fair  t...tnnent  of  those  who  h-vd  taken  the  Kind's 
«de  .„  the  old  colonies,  condemned  as  it  w«It 
only  by  North  and  the  Tories  but  by  prC 
Shendan  and  Burke,  led  to  that  Loyalist  mi^att 
w^d.  changed  the  radal  complexion  of  Cafadl 

The  IVeaty  of  1783  provided  that  Consress 
would  earnestly  recommend"  to  the  Z^ 
SUtes  tha    the   Loyalists  be  granted  amnLt^ 

SsLt?r"°"'''^''*"'"'"'«-    I°SUte 

Hi:L"::^:zr.r^ve^s---- 

t..mentof^edefeated^tS:irrs:rC 
to  understand.    The  atmiraU  h.A  u 

aUUi    bitterness  o    civil  war.    The  smallness  of 
the  field  of  combat  had  intensified  personal  iU-will. 


M  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

Both  sides  had  practiced  cruelties  in  guerrilla  war- 
fare; but  the  PatrioU  forgot  Marion's  raids,  Sims- 
bury  mines,  and  the  drumhead  hangings,  and  re- 
membered only  Hessian  brutalities,  Indian  scalp- 
ings,  Tarleton's  harryings,  and  the  infamous  prison 
ships  of  New  York.  The  war  had  been  a  long  one. 
The  tide  of  battle  had  ebbed  and  flowed.  A  dis- 
trict that  was  Patriot  one  year  was  frequently  Loyal- 
ist the  next.  These  circumstances  engendered  fear 
and  suspicion  and  led  to  nervous  reprisals. 

At  least  a  third,  if  not  a  half,  of  the  people  of 
the  old  colonies  had  been  opposed  to  revolu- 
tion. New  York  was  strongly  Loyalist,  with  Penn- 
sylvania, Georgia,  and  the  Carolinas  closely  follow- 
ing. In  the  end  some  fifty  or  sixty  thousand  Loyal- 
ists abandoned  their  homes  or  suffered  expulsion 
rather  than  submit  to  the  new  order.  They  counted 
in  their  ranks  many  of  the  men  who  had  held  first 
place  in  their  old  communities,  men  of  wealth,  of 
education,  and  of  standing,  as  well  as  thousands 
who  had  nothing  to  give  but  their  fidelity  to  the 
old  order.  Many,  especially  of  the  well-to-do,  went 
to  England;  a  few  found  refuge  in  the  West  In- 
dies; but  the  great  majority,  over  fifty  thousand  in 
all,  sought  new  homes  in  the  northern  wilderness. 
Over  thirty  thousand,  including  many  of  the  most 


THE  FIRST  FIFTV  YEARS  g7 

influential  of  the  whole  number  (with  about  three 
thousand  negro  slaves,  afterwards  freed  and  de- 
ported to  Sierra  Leone)  were  carried  by  ship  to 
Nova  Scotia.  They  found  homes  chiefly  in  "hat 
part  of  the  province  which  in  1784  became  New 
Brunswick.  Others,  trekking  overland  or  sailing 
around  by  the  Gulf  and  up  the  River,  settled  in 
the  upper  valley  of  the  St.  Lawrence -on  Lake 
i>t.  Francs,  on  the  Cataraqui  and  theBay  of  Quinte 
and  m  the  Niagara  District. 

Though  these  pioneers  were  generously  aided 
by  the  British  Government  with  grants  of  land 
and  supplies,  their  hardships  and  disappointmenU 
durmg  the  first  years  in  the  wilderness  were  such 
as  would  have  daunted  any  but  brave  and  desper- 
ate men  and  women  whom  fate  had  winnowed. 
Yet  all  but  a  few.  who  drifted  back  to  their  old 
homes,  held  out;  and  the  fomidations  of  two  more 
provinces  of  the  future  Dominion  -  New  Bruns- 
wick and  Upper  Canada  -  were  thus  broadly  and 
soundly  laid  by  the  men  whom  future  generations 
honored  as  "United  Empire  Loyalists."    Through 
aU  the  later  years,  their  sacrifices  and  sufferings, 
their  Ideals  and  prejudices,  were  to  make  a  deep 
impress  on  the  development  of  the  nation  which 
they  helped  to  found  and  were  to  influence  its 


n  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

rel«tioiu  with  the  country  which  they  had  left 
and  with  the  mother  country  which  had  held 
their  allegiance. 

Once  the  first  tasks  of  hewing  and  hauling  and 
planting  were  done,  the  new  settlers  called  for  the 
organization  of  local  governments.  They  were 
quite  as  determined  as  their  late  foes  to  have  a 
voice  in  their  own  governing,  even  though  they 
yielded  ultimate  obedience  to  rulers  overseas. 

In  the  provinces  by  the  sea  a  measure  of  self- 
government  was  at  once  established.  New  Bruns- 
wick received,  without  question,  a  constitution  on 
the  Nova  Scotia  model,  with  a  Lieutenant  Gover- 
nor, an  Executive  Ckwncil  appointed  to  advise  him, 
which  served  also  as  the  upper  house  of  the  legis- 
lature, and  an  elective  Assembly.  Of  the  twenty- 
six  members  of  the  first  Assembly,  twenty-three 
were  Loyalists.  With  a  population  so  much  at 
one,  and  with  the  tasks  of  road  makmg  and 
school  building  and  tax  collecting  insistent  and 
absorbii-:;,  no  party  strife  divided  the  province 
for  many  years.  In  Nova  Scotia,  too,  the  Loyal- 
bts  were  in  the  majority.  There,  however,  the 
earlier  settlers  soon  joined  with  some  of  the  new- 
comers to  form  an   opposition.    The  island  of 


THE  FIRST  FIFTY  YEARS  «« 

St.  John.  «„.«,ed  Prince  Edward  I.I«nd  in  1708. 
had  been  made  a  separate  Government  and  had 
received  an  Assembly  in  1773.    Its  one  absorbing 
question  was  the  tenure  of  land.    On  a  single  dav 
ml7e7  the  British  authorities  had  granS  S^ 
whole  island  by  lottery  to  army  and  navy  officer, 
and  country  gentlemen,  on  condition  of  the  pay- 
«ent   of  small   quitrents.    The   quitrents   Ze 
ra«Iy  paid,  and  the  tenanU  of  the  absentee  land- 
lords kept  up  an  agiution  for  reform  which  was 
unce^mg  but  which  was  not  to  be  successful  for 
a  hundred  years.    In  all  three  Maritime  Provinces 
pohtical  and  party  controversy  was  little  known  for 
a  generation  after  the  Revolution 

It  was  more  difficult  to  decide  what  form  of 
g3ver„ment  should   be  set  up  i.  Canada,  now 
hat  tens  of  thousands  of  English-speaking  set- 
no^  ^'^n'"''?  *'''•'"  ^'''"^'-^-    CaiJeton. 
m  1786.  after  eight  years'  absence.    He  was  still 
averse  to  granting  an  Assembly  so  long  as  the 
Rench  subjects  were  in  the  majority:  they  did 
not  want  it,  he  insisted,  and  could  not  use  it. 
But  the  Loyalist  settlers,  not  to  be  put  off.  joined 
wUh  the  English  merchants  of  Montreal  and  Qu^ 
bee  m  demanding  an  Assembly  and  rehef  from 


so  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

the  old  French  Uwi.  Carleton  hinuelf  wm  com- 
pelled to  admit  the  force  of  the  conclusion  <rf 
William  GrenviUe,  Secretary  of  SUte  for  the  Home 
Department,  then  in  control  of  the  remnants  of 
the  colonial  empire,  and  son  of  that  George  Gren- 
viUe who,  as  Prime  Minister,  had  introduced  the 
American  Stamp  Act  of  1765:  "I  am  persuaded 
that  it  is  a  point  of  true  Policy  to  make  these  Con- 
cessions at  a  time  when  they  may  be  received  as  a 
matter  of  favour,  and  when  it  is  in  Our  own  power 
to  regulate  and  direct  thv>  manner  of  applying 
them,  rather  than  to  wait  till  they  shall  be  ex- 
torted from  us  by  a  necessity  which  shall  neither 
leave  us  any  discretion  in  the  form  nor  any  merit 
in  the  substance  of  what  We  give."  Accordingly, 
in  1791,  the  British  Parliament  passed  the  Con- 
stitutional Act  dividing  Canada  into  two  provinces 
separated  by  the  Ottawa  River,  Lower  or  French- 
speaking  Canadti  and  Upper  or  English-speaking 
Canada,  and  granting  each  an  elective  Assembly. 
Thus  far  the  tide  of  democracy  had  risen,  but 
thus  far  only.  Few  in  high  places  had  learned 
the  full  lesson  of  the  American  Revolution.  The 
majority  believed  that  the  old  colonies  had  been 
lost  because  they  had  not  been  kept  under  a  suffi- 
ciently *  ■ -^ht  rein ;  that  democracy  had  been  allowed 


SI 


THE  FIRST  FIFTY  YEARS  „ 

oreakofthe  French  Revolution  in  1789  ■  TU,.  i 

lesson  they  drew  from  both  was  th.t  i.         i 
-other  democracy  in  the  ZT  "  '"'  *° 

For  this   reason    the   measure  of  represent, 
tjve  government  that  had  been  grantS^e^h  o," 

th.f^rr  "  ""•'  y**  conceived  it  possible 

»wten?he  L  f"''"""  was  compelled  to 
house  T  r  r  -.""^-^  power  with  an  upper 
^ouse.  the  I^,slat.ve  Council.  Not  on--  w«e 
Uie  members  of  this  upper  house  appointee  .y  tl 
Crown  for  life,  but  the  King  was  L^       V 

bestow  herediUry  titles  upo^rhr^rrl: 


M  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

to  making  the  Council  in  the  fulhieM  of  time  * 
copy  of  the  Home  of  Lorda.  A  blow  wu  itnick 
even  at  that  traditional  prerogative  of  the  popular 
house,  the  control  of  the  purse.  Carleton  had 
urged  that  in  every  township  a  sixth  of  the  land 
should  be  reserved  to  enable  His  Majesty  "to 
reward  such  of  Wk  provincial  Servants  as  may 
merit  the  Roy  a!  favour"  and  "to  create  and 
strengthen  an  Aristocracy,  of  which  the  best  use 
may  be  made  on  this  G>ntinent,  where  all  Govern- 
ments are  feeble  and  the  general  condition  of 
things  tends  to  a  wild  Democracy."  Grenvillesaw 
further  possibilities  in  this  suggestion.  It  would 
give  the  Crown  a  revenue  which  would  make  it 
independent  of  the  Assembly,  "a  measure,  which, 
if  it  had  been  adopted  when  the  Old  Colonies  were 
first  settled,  would  have  retained  them  to  this 
hour  in  obedience  and  Loyalty."  Nor  was  this 
all.  From  the  same  source  an  endowment  might 
be  obtained  for  a  state  church  which  would  be  a 
bulwark  of  order  and  conservatism.  The  Con- 
stitutional Act  accordingly  provided  for  setting 
aside  lands  equal  in  value  to  one-seventh  of  all 
lands  granted  from  time  to  time,  for  the  support 
of  a  Protestant  clergy.  The  Executive  Council 
received  power  to  set  up  rectories  in  every  parish. 


THE  PIRST  FIFTY  YEABS  ss 

to  «.dow  them  hbenUly.  ud  to  n«ne  ..  rector, 
minwter.  of  the  Church  of  Englwd.  Further, 
the  Executive  Council  wm  instructed  to  retain 
M  equiJ  amount  of  land  a.  crown  reserve.,  di.- 
tnbuted  judiciou.ly  in  block,  between  the  gr«,U 
made  to  .ettler..  Were  any  radical  tendencie. 
to  .urvive  the.e  attention.,  the  veto  power  of  the 
Bntwh  Government  could  be  counted  on  in  the 
Mat  reMrt. 

For  a  time  the  instalment  of  «slf.govemment 
thu.  granted  .atisfied  the  people.    The  pioneer 
year,  left  little  leisure  for  political  discussion,  nor 
were  there  at  first  any  general  issues  about  which 
men  might  differ.    The  Government  was  carrying 
on  acceptably  the  essential  tasks  of  surveying 
tand  granting,  and  road  building;  and  each  mem- 
ber of  the  Assembly  played  his  own  hand  and  was 
chiefly  concerned  in  obtaining  for  his  constitu- 
ents the  roads  and  bridges  they  needed  so  badly. 
Ihe  English-speaking  settlers  of  Upper  Canada 
were  too  widely  scattered,  and  the  Prench-speak- 
mg  citizens  of  Ix,wer  Canada  were  too  ignorant  . 
of  representative  institutions,  to  act  in  group, 
or  parties.  ^ 

Much  turned  in  these  early  years  upon  the  per- 
sonality of  the  Governor.    In  several  instances. 


34  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

the  choice  of  rulers  for  the  new  provinces  proved 
fortunate.  This  was  particularly  so  in  the  case 
of  John  Graves  Simcoe,  Lieutenant  Governor  of 
Upper  Canada  from  1792  to  1799.  He  was  a  good 
soldier  and  a  just  and  vigorous  administrator, 
particularly  wise  in  setting  his  regulars  to  work 
building  roads  such  as  Yonge  Street  and  Dundas 
Street,  which  to  this  day  are  great  provincial 
arteries  of  travel.  Yet  there  were  many  sources  of 
weakness  in  the  scheme  of  government  —  divided 
authority,  absenteeism,  personal  unfitness.  When 
Dorchester  was  reappointed  in  1786,  he  had  been 
made  Governor  in  Chief  of  all  British  North  Amer- 
ica. From  the  beginning,  however,  the  Lieutenant 
Governors  of  the  various  provinces  asserted  inde- 
pendent authority,  and  in  a  few  years  the  Governor 
General  became  in  fact  merely  the  Governor  of 
the  most  populous  province.  Lower  Canada,  in 
which  he  resided. 

In  Upper  Canada,  as  in  New  Brunswick,  the  pop- 
ulation was  at  first  much  at  one.  In  time,  how- 
ever, discordant  elements  appeared.  Religious, 
or  at  least  denominational,  differences  began  to 
cause  friction.  The  great  majority  of  the  early 
settlers  in  Upper  Canada  belonged  to  the  Church 
of  England,  whose  adherents  in  the  older  colonies 


THE  FIRST  FIFTY  YEARS  S6 

had  n«rly  all  taken  the  Loyalist  side.    Of  the 
Ukter  Presbyterians  and  New  England  Congre^,- 
tionahsts  who  formed  the  backbone  of  the  Revolu- 
tion   few  came  to  Canada.    The  growth  of  the 
Methodists  and  Baptists  in  the  United  State. 
*^ter  the  Revolution,  however,  made  its  mark  on 
the  neighboring  country.     The   first   Methodist 
class  meetings  in  Upper  Canada,  held  in  the  United 
Empire  Loyalist  settlement  on  the  Bay  of  Quints 
m  1791,  were  organized  by  itinerant  preachers 
from  the  United  States;  and  in  the  western  part 
of  the  provmce  pioneer  Baptist  evangelists  from 
the  same  countr.  reached  the  scattered  settlers 
n^lected  by  the  older  churches. 

Nor  was  it  in  religion  alone  that  diversity  grew. 
Simcos  had  set  up  a  generous  land  policy  which 
b«,ught  m  many  "late  Loyalists."  American  set- 

IZa  Tf""*^""  *°  n.onarchical  principles 
would  not  always  bear  close  inquiry.  The  fan- 
tas^c  e^eriment  of  planting  in  the  heart  of  the 
woods  of  Upper  Canada  a  group  of  French  nobles 
dnven  out  by  the  Revolution  left  no  trace;  but 

ITTI^'.^""'''"'  '"''  ^'*^^  Highlanders 
contributed  diverse  and  permanent  factors  to  the 

!f  itr  .  tl  '"°''^'*-  ^°'''""'  Thomas  Talbot 
of  Malahide.  "a  fierce  little  Irishman  who  hated 


M  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

Scotchmen  and  women,  turned  teetotallers  out  ot 
his  house,  and  built  the  only  good  road  in  the 
province,"  made  the  beginnings  of  settlement 
midway  on  Lake  Erie.  A  shrewd  Massachusetts 
merchant,  Philemon  Wright,  with  hb  comrades, 
their  families,  servants,  horses,  oxen,  and  £10,000, 
sledged  from  Boston  to  Montreal  in  the  winter  of 
1800,  and  thence  a  hundred  miles  beyond,  to 
found  the  town  of  Hull  and  establish  a  great 
lumbering  industry  in  the  Ottawa  Valley. 

These  differences  of  origin  and  ways  of  thought 
bad  not  yet  been  reflected  in  political  life.  Party 
strife  in  Upper  Canada  began  with  a  factional 
fight  which  took  place  in  1805-07  between  a  group 
of  Irish  o£Sceholders  and  a  Scotch  clique  who  held 
the  reins  of  government.  Weekes,  an  Irish-Ameri- 
can barrister,  Thorpe,  a  ptiisne  judge,  Wyatt,  the 
surveyor  general,  and  Willcocks,  a  United  Irish- 
man who  had  become  sheriff  of  one  of  the  four 
Upper  Canada  districts,  began  to  question  the 
right  to  rule  of  "the  Scotch  pedlars"  or  "the 
Shopkeeper  Aristocracy,"  as  Thorpe  called  those 
merchants  who,  for  the  lack  of  other  leaders,  had 
developed  an  influence  with  the  governors  or  ruled 
m  their  frequent  absence.  But  the  insurgents 
were  backed  by  only  a  small  minority  in  the 


THE  PIBST  PIPTY  YEARS  S7 

A^bly  «d  when  the  four  leaders  di«ppea,«, 
from  the  stage.-  this  curtain  «iser  to  the  serious 

to  ifa  «d  ''''''*  ""  *°  '""'"'  """^  '»'"'«*'y 

The  French  Canadians,  who  ha     not  asked  for 
repr^enteUve  government,  eventually  grasped  ib, 

„T  i  r  ""^ ''"''"'  '^"'^  o"'^  s;  tho^ 

ordamed  for  them.  In  the  first  Assembly  there 
were  many  seigneurs  and  aristocrats  who  bore 
names  notable  for  six  generations  back-Tasch- 
««u  Duchesnay.  Lotbini^re.  Rouville.  Salabeny. 

But  they  soonfound  their  surn,undingsuncongZl 
or  failed  to  be  reelected.  Writing  in  1810  to  W 
Liverpool.  Secretary  of  State  for  War  and  the 
Colomes.  the  Governor.  Sir  James  Craig,  with  a 
toe^patncmn  scorn  thus  pictures  the  Assembly  of 

ft  really,  my  Lord,  appear,  to  me  an  absurdity,  that 
tion  of  the  Commercial  concerns  of  the  British  Empi^. 


98 


THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 


should  be  in  the  hands  of  six  petty  shopkeepers,  a 
Blacksmith,  a  Miller,  and  18  ignorant  peasants  who 
form  part  of  our  present  House;  a  Doctor  or  Apothe- 
cary, twelve  Canadian  Avocats  and  Notaries,  and  four 
so  far  respectable  people  that  at  least  they  do  not  keep 
shops,  together  with  ten  English  members  compleat 
the  List:  there  is  not  one  person  coming  under  the 
description  of  a  Canadian  Gentleman  among  them. 

And  again: 

A  Governor  cannot  obtain  among  them  even  that 
sort  of  influence  that  might  arise  from  personal  inter- 
course. I  can  have  none  with  Blacksmiths,  Millers, 
and  Shopkeepers;  even  the  Avocats  and  Notaries  who 
compose  so  considerable  a  portion  of  the  House,  are, 
generally  speaking,  such  as  I  can  nowhere  meet,  except 
during  the  actual  sitting  of  Parliament,  when  I  have 
a  day  of  the  week  expressly  appropriated  to  the  receiving 
a  large  portion  of  them  at  dinner. 


Leadership  under  these  conditions  fell  to  the  "un- 
principled Demagogues,"  half-educated  lawyers, 
men  "with  nothing  to  lose." 

But  it  was  not  merely  as  an  aristocrat  facing 
peasants  and  shopkeepers,  nor  as  a  soldier  faced 
by  talkers,  but  as  an  Englishman  on  guard  against 
Frenchmen  that  Craig  found  himself  at  odds  with 
his  Assembly.  For  nearly  twenty  years  in  this 
period  England  was  at  death  grips  with  France, 


THE  FIRST  FIFTY  YEAHS  sg 

•nd  to  hate  and  despise  all  Frenchmen  was  part 
of  the  hereditary  and  congenial  duty  of  all  true 
Bntons.    Craig  and   those   who  counseled  him 
were  firmly  convinced  that  the  new  subjects  were 
French  at  heart.    Of  the  250.000  inhabitants  of 
Lower   Canada,  he  declared,   "about  20,000  or 
25.000  may  be  English  or  Americans,  the  rest  are 
French.    I  use  the  term  designedly,  my  Lord,  be- 
cause I  mean  to  say  that  they  are  in  Language,  in 
K^igion.  m  manner  and  in  attachment  completely 
French."    That  there  was  stUl  some  affection  for 
old  France,  stirred  by  war  and  French  victories, 
there  is  no  question,  but  that  the  Canadians  wished 
to  return  to  French  allegiance  was  untrue,  even 
though  Craig  reported  that  such  was  "the  general 
opmion  of  all  ranks  with  whom  it  is  possible  to 
converse  on  the  subject."    The  French  Revolu- 
tion  had  created  a  great  gulf  between  Old  France 
and  New  France.    The  clergy  did  their  utmost 
to  bar  all  intercourse  with  the  land  where  deism 
and  revolution  held  sway,  and  when  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  and  the  British  Government  com- 
bmed  for  years  on  a  single  object,  it  was  litUe 
wonder  they  succeeded.    Nelson's  victory  at  Tra- 
falgar was  celebrated  by  a  Te  Deum  in  the  Roman 
Catholic  Cathedral  at  Quebec.    In  fact,  as  Craig 


40  THE  CANADUN  DOMINION 

diewhere  noted,  the  lukbitanti  were  becoming 
nther  a  new  and  distinct  nationality,  a  nation 
eanadimn*.  Thejr  ceaaed  to  be  French;  they  do- 
clined  to  become  English;  and  sheltered  under  their 
"Sacred  Charter"'  they  became  Canadians  fint 
and  last. 

The  governors  were  not  alone  in  this  hostility 
to  the  mass  of  the  people.  There  had  grown  up 
in  the  colony  a  little  clique  of  officeholders,  of 
whom  Jonathan  Sewell,  the  Loyalist  Attorney 
General,  and  later  Chief  Justice,  was  the  chief,  full 
of  racial  and  class  prejudice,  and  in  some  cases 
greedy  for  personal  gain.  Sewell  declared  it  "in- 
dispensably necessary  to  overwhelm  and  sink  the 
Canadian  population  by  English  Protestants," 
and  was  even  ready  to  run  the  risk  of  bringing  in 
Americans  to  effect  this  end.  Of  the  non-official 
English,  some  were  strongly  opposed  to  the  pre- 
tensions of  the  "ChAteau  Clique";  but  others, 
and  especially  the  merchants,  with  their  organ  the 
Quebec  Mercury,  were  loud  in  their  denunciations 
of  the  French  who  were  unprogressive  and  who  as 

■  "It  Gunot  be  luffidently  inculcated  on  llu  fart  sj  Oomnaiuid 
that  the  Quebec  Act  u  a  Sacred  Charter,  granted  by  the  King  in 
Parliament  to  the  Canadian!  ai  a  Security  for  their  Beligion.  Lam, 
and  Property."  Governor  Sir  Frederick  Haldimand  to  Lord  Geor|e 
Genuine,  Oct.  U,  1780. 


THE  FIRST  FIFTY  YEABS  41 

Undownw,  were  incidentally  trying  to  throw  the 
burden  of  taxation  chiefly  on  the  tiadem. 
The  first  open  sign  of  the  racial  division  which 

r^     .       ""  '•"'  "'"  °'  ^*  P™^"**  ««»«  in 
1806  when,  in  o.J...  to  meet  the  attacks  of  the 

Anghmmg  party,  the  newspaper  Le  Canadien  was 

«tabl«hed  at   Quebec.    Its   motto   was  signifi- 

«nt:     Notre  langue.  not  irutitutunu,  et  nos  hit " 

T    ,f„!1^  ^'^  ~""«''°"  t~k  up  the  challenge. 
In  1808  he  dismissed  five  militia  officers,  because 
of  their  connection  with  the  irritating  journal, 
and  m  1810  he  went  so  far  as  to  supprL  1^ 
to  throw  mto  prison  four  of  those  responsible  for 
rts  management.    The  Assembly,  which  was  pwv- 
mg  hard  to  control,  was  twice  dissolved  in  three 
years.    Naturally  the  Governor's  arbitmry  cou«e 
only  stiffened  resistance:  and  passions  were  rising 
fast  and  h,gh  when  illness  led  to  his  recall  and  the 
shadow  of  a  common  danger  from  the  south,  the 
.mminence  of  war  with  the  United  States,  for  a 
time  drew  all  men  together. 

While  the  foundations  of  the  eastern  provinces 
of  Canada  were  being  laid,  the  wildernesses  which 
one  day  were  to  become  the  western  provinces 
were  just  rising  above  the  horizon  of  discovery 


4»  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

In  the  plaiiu  and  prairies  between  the  Great  Lakes 
and  the  Rockies,  fur  traders  warred  for  the  privi- 
lege of  exchanging  with  the  Indians  bad  whiskey 
for  good  furs.  Scottish  traders  from  Montreal, 
following  in  the  footsteps  of  La  Virendrye  and 
Niverville,  pushed  far  into  the  northern  wilds.' 
In  1783  the  leading  traders  joined  forces  in  or- 
ganizing the  North-West  Company.  Their  great 
canoes,  manned  by  French-Canadian  voyageura, 
penetrated  the  network  of  waters  from  the  Ottawa 
to  the  Saskatchewan,  and  poured  wealth  into  the 
pockets  of  the  lordly  partners  in  Montreal.  Their 
rivalry  wakened  the  sleepy  Hudson's  Bay  Com- 
pany, which  was  now  forced  to  leave  the  shores 
of  the  inland  sea  and  build  posts  in  the  interior. 

On  the  Pacific  coast  rivalry  was  still  keener. 
The  sea  otter  and  the  seal  were  a  lure  to  the  men 
of  many  nations.  Canada  took  its  part  in  this 
rivalry.  In  1792,  when  the  Russians  were  press- 
ing down  from  their  Alaskan  posts,  when  the 
Spaniards,  claiming  the  Pacific  for  their  own, 
were  exploring  the  mouth  of  the  Eraser,  when 

'  It  is  interestiog  to  note  the  dominant  sliare  talcen  in  the  tnde 
and  exploration  of  the  North  and  West  by  men  of  Highland  Scotch 
and  French  extraction.  For  an  account  of  La  V6rendrye  sec  The 
Conquett  of  New  France  and  for  the  Scotch  fur  traders  of  Montraal 
see  Adventvreri  of  Oregon  (in  The  Chnmielee  of  America). 


THE  FIRST  FIFTY  YEARS 
Captain  Robert  Gray  of  n«.t 

«™»«>t.  a  young  North-We.t  Col!.       , 
Alexander  Mackenzie  inhiT    ,  ""^y  '«>*<». 
Athabasca.  .^'Z^^^  ':^T  Z  "^^ 
of  n.ountai„.  to  the  ooaft     w7.fu  ""^ 
Mackay,  and  six  r«n  ^  ^"°''  *"<1«'' 

"P  tl.e  Ce  and  ^e  P         ""'""'"•  '"=  P"**-*^ 

-^then.to^tt::inr;r;r^'"' 

-adl/thn,ulfCt:L"T  '''••'=''  "•^'"^ 
the  precious  bark      °     "';'""' ^" '""'^ '^'ecked 

pices,  contending  againsT  hostil    T^'     '  "'  ''"^'■ 

stricken  followed,  and  at  ,tt   "'""  ""'  '-'- 

Mackenzie  sun,«ed  up  X  "  „""'"*  ''"«"«''• 

of  thegreatachieven^eLof  L!"    7  '^"''•"  """^ 

P'erecord.pai„tedrve™,"  "[''.*'''"■""■ 

Channel:  Alexander   uT      °"  "  '^'^ ""  ^"'^^^ 

*««dr«rf  ami  nir^ty-lkj  'T'''''"' f^'^'^nd  seven 
-enintheunionXl^^J'-''^'^'^''- 


44  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

Between  the  eastern  provinces  a  stronger  link 
was  soon  to  be  forged.  The  War  of  1812  gave  the 
scattered  British  colonies  in  America  for  the  first 
time  a  living  sense  of  unity  that  transcended  all 
differences,  a  memory  of  perils  and  of  victories 
which  nourished  a  common  patriotism. 

The  War  of  1812  was  no  quarrel  of  Canada's. 
It  was  merely  an  incident  in  the  struggle  between 
England  and  Napoleon.  At  desperate  grips,  both 
contestants  used  whatever  weapons  lay  ready  to 
their  hands.  Sea  power  was  England's  weapon, 
and  in  her  claim  to  forbid  ail  neutral  traffic  with  her 
enemies  and  to  exercise  the  galling  right  of  search, 
she  pressed  it  far.  France  trampled  still  more 
ruthlessly  on  American  and  neutral  rights;  but, 
with  memories  of  1776  still  fresh,  the  dominant 
party  in  the  United  States  was  disposed  to  forgive 
France  and  to  hold  England  to  strict  account. 

England  had  struck  at  France,  regardless  of 
how  the  blow  might  injure  neutrals.  Now  the 
United  States  sought  to  strike  at  England  through 
the  colonies,  regardless  of  their  lack  of  any  respon- 
sibility for  English  policy.  The  "war  hawks"  of 
the  South  and  West  called  loudly  for  the  speedy 
invasion  and  capture  of  Canada  as  a  means  of 
punishing   England.    In   so  far  as   the   British 


THE  nUST  FIFTY  YEAH8  45 

n'nn.  ♦!.  nawits    m  Congress.    "Ever 

mL7     ~  '"  '''"PPOO'wi"  but  one  eternal 

-.onotonous  tone  -  Canada.  Canada.  Ca„.lr 
At  the  outset  there  appeared  no  question  tLt 

Eu-tis.  thJwtar;  o"  warTri;r'::r"'^" 

».-tt     ^  '"'  ""^  prophesied  that  "wp 


48  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

chief  enemy,  to  let  ■gaiiut  the  eight  millioiw  of 
the  Republic.  There  were  fewer  than  ten  thou- 
•and  regular  troope  in  all  the  colonies,  half  of  them 
down  by  the  «ea,  far  away  from  the  danger  xone, 
and  IcM  than  fifteen  hundred  west  of  Montreal. 
Little  help  could  come  from  England,  herself  at 
war  with  Napoleon,  the  master  of  half  of  Europe. 

But  there  was  another  side.  The  United  States 
was  not  a  unit  in  the  war;  New  England  was 
apathetic  or  hostile  to  the  war  throughout,  and  as 
late  as  1814  two-thirds  of  the  army  of  Canada  were 
eating  beef  supplied  by  Vermont  and  New  York 
contractors.  Weak  as  was  the  militia  of  the  Can- 
adas,  it  was  stiffened  by  English  and  Canadian 
regulars,  hardened  by  frontier  experience,  and  led 
for  the  most  part  by  trained  and  able  men,  where- 
as an  inefficient  system  and  political  interference 
greatly  weakened  the  military  force  of  the  fighting 
States.  Above  all,  the  Canadians  were  fighting 
for  their  homes.  To  them  the  war  was  a  matter 
of  life  and  death;  to  the  United  States  it  was  at 
best  a  struggle  to  assert  commercial  rights  or 
national  prestige. 

The  course  and  fortunes  of  the  war  call  for  only 
the  briefest  notice.  In  the  first  year  the  American 
plans  for  invading  Upper  Canada  came  to  grief 


-46  THE  C\NADIA\  DOMfVlON 

rh'.'J  i.vxu\y.  'o  ri'l  BJViiiiil  fhe  ri(zht  niilliom  ••* 
ttir  f?  ■  xihlx.  ThTf  were  fewer  tlwn  t'-n  tl.r..i- 
sarut  regniar  troops  in  all  the  "v  niw,  hsli  o?  thei" 
dO'Vn  !.;.-  the  sm.  far  .t*.  v  f:»n  1h'.  rlanger  z.jit:. 
line!  If'i'.  tli.tit  fifteen  hnnJrt^l  west  i»/  ^!.l!llr«:al. 
T.ittii*  hi-1.  fiM!<i  c'li'if  irc»T'  Kiif.iiKi.  ',  r=i;lf  at 
•.v;ir  wi'ili  .Nu,'t.!(on.  Hi  ■  <»i:v4-  r  r.f  hah  ■>'  '•'urot*. 
Bui  tb.-i  •  n  i<  ai'o'',-!  '•»!*•  Tlie  Vt-.'L-:I  Slatej 
.\:ts  ni>'  .  i:uil  In  *'..<  ■'■.>!  '^-w  I".n:ri,iiiil  wi« 
.iiiBth.-ti.  ...- Ik--Ii!.  •  u-'ii-n'.i.AD6  us 

Isdc!^  l.-il-lt  ■  •  n!;vi:t   ' -r'- 

pii'i.i;'  '•  i"'  ■         aiiiaa  ^K^.^\  iW'.     ■    '"^■'^^   Vo-k  ' 

..i^;.   c    -^  ^  '■■"> 

hsnil*---  ii'"-  '^'■•■-  '*'"'  '"^ 

•ori'fi-.  .  .  ■•  >.,  ..•n,>-.l  Hr.l  (il.fe  iiif-n.  nhe«v 
,1-  iir  i,iof?.:-'nt  iy>-t/'iM  .inii  •;■.'■'  >'  !;it.'if<>ron<v 
v^rfiit'r    ^vt^ik(-n.•'i  tin-  tiiuiti!   -  fixbtliii; 

ritatc^     Alw.Vf  al!,  tb  ■  •'     '"■Khi'i^S 

for  th.  ir  Imnips     To*.  ■»..■•  a  m.-tUr 

.•■tlif'  rtii.i  liP.tth:  to  !h  ■  I'liitfd  '•tntc?  f  u.i.- nl 
K"<»   ii    >tr;ii!Kl.'   t!>   ojlSc'I    i.(,iiir  u  r-.U'    -gh'-:    "^ 

lit. in.-   .'!  I'u-  ''■•^■r    ill   .  ■:  ''n!.> 
,j,      ,.,  ,.        .  Ji  tf|.- !ii^t  ji-.T  thf  iVin.'.-ioKn 

j>1.1;!s   •-«■     :.;i.':ili.'    I  I'l-i    l.'aji'J>la      ir.K-   to  ffl-iri 


thrc 
Bro 
Ami 
paig 
invj 
Can 
and 
Ins 
proi 
a  ru 
T 
Int 
the 
and 
peni 
alF 
tow; 
one 
kille 
oftl 
ings 
tun( 
plan 
trea 
to  s 
Sacl 


THE  FIRST  FIFTY  YEABS  4T 

through  the  surrender  of  Hull  at  Detroit  to  Isaac 
Brock  and  the  defeat  at  Queenston  Heights  of  the 
American  army  under  Van  Rensselaer.  The  cam- 
paign euded  with  not  a  foot  of  Canadian  soil  in  the 
invaders'  hands,  and  with  Michigan  lost,  but  Brock, 
Canada's  brilliant  leader,  had  fallen  at  Queenston, 
and  at  sea  the  British  had  tasted  unwonted  defeat. 
In  single  actions  one  American  frigate  after  another 
proved  too  much  for  its  British  opponent.  It  was 
a  rude  shock  to  the  Mistress  of  the  Seas. 

The  second  year's  campaign  was  more  checkered. 
In  the  West  the  Americans  gained  the  command  of 
the  Great  Lakes  by  rapid  building  and  good  sailing, 
and  with  it  followed  the  command  of  all  the  western 
peninsula  of  Upper  Canada.  The  British  Gener- 
al Procter  was  disastrously  defeated  at  Moravian- 
town,  and  his  ally,  the  Shawanoe  chief  Tecumseh, 
one  of  the  half  dozen  great  men  of  his  race,  was 
killed.  York,  later  known  as  Toronto,  the  capital 
of  the  province,  was  captured,  and  its  public  build- 
ings were  burned  and  looted.  But  in  the  East  for- 
tune was  kinder  to  the  Canadians.  The  American 
plan  of  invasion  called  for  an  attack  on  Mon- 
treal from  two  directions;  General  Wilkinson  was 
to  sail  and  march  down  the  St.  Lawrence  from 
Sackett's  Harbor  with  some  eight  thousand  men, 


V 


48  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

while  General  Hampton,  with  four  thouaand,  wa» 
to  take  the  historic  route  by  Lake  Champlain. 
Half-way  down  the  St.  Lawrence  Wilkinson  came 
to  grief.    Eighteen  hundred  men  whom  he  landed 
to  drive  off  a  force  of  a  thousand  hampering  his 
rear  were  decisively  defeated  at  Chrystler's  Farm. 
Wilkinson  pushed  on  for  a  few  days,  but  when  word 
came  that  Hampton  had  also  met  disaster  he  with- 
drew into  winter  quarters.    Hampton  had  found 
Colonel  de  Salaberry,  with  less  than  sixteen  hun- 
dred troops,  nearly  all  French  Canadians,  mak- 
ing a  stand  on  the  banks  of  the  Chateauguay, 
thirty-five  miles  south  of  Montreal.    He  divided 
his  force  in  order  to  take  the  Canadians  in  front 
and  rear,  only  to  be  outmaneuvered  and  out- 
fought in  one  of  the  most  brilliant  actions  of  the 
war  and  forced  to  retire.    In  the  closing  months  of 
the  year  the  Americans,  compelled  ♦o  withdraw 
from  Fort  George  on  the  Niagara,  burned  the 
adjoining  town  of  Newark  and  turned  its  women 
and  children  into  the  December  snow.  Drummond, 
who  had  succeeded  Brock,  gained  control  of  both 
sides  of  the  Niagara  and  retaliated  in  kind  by  lay- 
ing waste  the  frontier  villages  from  Lewbton  to 
Buffalo.   The  year  closed  with  Amherstburg  on  the 
Detroit  the  only  CanadUn  post  in  American  hands. 


TBE  PIBSr  HFTy  VEAIIS  „ 

«iv«j  the  pnde  of  England. 

Detail  tat  „^,  u„,"\   f  "^  PeiuBsul.  („„ 

'^"."^  nvr,'^,'^r,"•^"- 


1 1* 


50  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

to  the  end,  the  Ontario  flotilla  aided  Drummond, 
Brock's  able  successor,  in  forcing  the  withdrawal 
of  Izard's  forces  from  the  whole  peninsula  in  No- 
vember. Farther  east  a  third  attempt  to  cap- 
ture Montreal  had  been  defeated  in  the  spring, 
after  Wilkiusoa  with  four  thousand  men  had  failed 
to  drive  five  hundred  regulars  and  militia  from  the 
stone  walls  of  LacoUe's  Mill. 

Until  this  closing  year  Britain  had  been  unable, 
in  face  of  the  more  vital  danger  from  Napoleon,  to 
send  any  but  trifling  reinforcements  to  what  she 
considered  a  minor  theater  of  the  war.  Now,  with 
Napoleon  in  Elba,  she  was  free  to  take  more  vig- 
orous action.  Her  navy  had  already  swept  the 
daring  little  fleet  of  American  frigates  and  Ameri- 
can merchant  nuuine  from  the  seas.  Now  it  main- 
tained a  close  blockade  of  all  the  coast  and, 
with  troops  from  Halifax,  captured  and  held  the 
Maine  coaxt  north  (rf  the  Penobscot.  Large  forces 
of  Wellingtea's  hardy  veterans  crossed  the  ocean, 
sixteen  thousand  to  Canada,  four  thousand  to 
aid  in  harrying  the  Atlantic  coast,  and  later  nine 
thousand  to  seize  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi. 
Yet,  strangely,  these  hosts  fared  worse,  because  of 
hard  fortune  and  poor  leadership,  than  the  handful 
of  militia  and  regidars  who  had  borne  the  brunt 


THE  PIBST  FIFTY  YEAHS 
°f  the  war  in  the  first  t«,  ' 

they  captured  W«hWf  i'*^"    ^'"''''  ««« 

«••«»;  and  under  Pakenr.  ,  ^  ^*"'*^  "*  P'«tt»- 

'•««i  against  Antltrn^rV"'^'  ""'^ 
New  Orleans.  ^°  "  »^»"Pshooters  at 

Before  the  last-named  fi„ht 
been  made.     Both  side,  ""''Wed.  peace  had 

which  had  now  bv  th        "'"^  '^^'^  °'  the  war 
between  Englaiid  and  Na'^r*  '"''  °'  ^"^  '"™*»'«' 
«"dent.  lost  whatever^tT        ?  "^■'='  '*  '^^  »- 
Though  Napoleon  47  t^iT,?^  """"  °'  '««».• 
J-bein,atres,aXB^^^:.^.-P«-/ar 
by  Wellington's  advice  we    ^^^''^•'"^«d 
They  showed  their  ::;:;7,^-*°-«^  the  war. 
by  sending  to  the  peace  Zt  "'""'' "'  "'«''« 

--i^-oners  as  i:c;:pren;r "'  ^"^^  ^- 

«  ««at  power.  Gambier  r  .t  ""''P'^'^t'^ 
To  face  these  the  ^d  st  ™'  ""'  ^'^'^'■ 
Q-incy  Adams.  Albert  r,f  "^  ^"^  ^'''»' 
J«- Bayard,  and  Jolh!:"^^^^^  ^^-. 

astute  a  group  „f  pw"  f!^  '  ""  "'"''  '""^ 

^"thered  «,und  a  taw!  fc  T'  '"^^  "^  ''^^ 
«««  British  representat  Jlli'r  '^"-"'nstances 
^  on  the  basis  of  thl  l!  '"'^^  *°  ^^-^ 
I'-d  hoped  that  suffie  enVS'::  '^  ''"'^-  Canada 
""■cent  of  the  unsettled  Maine 


1^ 


i 


M  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

wilderness  would  be  retained  to  link  up  New  Bruna- 
wick  with  the  inland  colony  of  Quebec,  but  this 
proposal  was  soon  abandoned.  In  the  treaty  not 
one  of  the  ostensible  causes  of  the  war  was  even 
mentioned. 

The  war  -d  the  effect  of  unifying  Canadian 
feeling.  '  )-.re  more  it  had  been  determined  that 
Canada  v,  is  not  to  lose  her  identity  in  the  nation 
to  the  south.  In  Upper  Canada,  especially  in  the 
,  west,  there  were  many  recent  American  settlers 
who  sympathized  openly  with  their  kinsmen,  but 
of  these  some  departed,  some  were  jailed,  and 
others  had  a  change  of  heart.  Lower  Canada  was 
a  unit  against  the  invader,  and  French-Canadian 
troops  on  every  occasion  covered  themselves  with 
glory.  To  the  Canadians,  as  the  smaller  people, 
and  as  the  people  whose  country  had  been  the 
chief  battle  ground,  the  war  in  later  years  naturally 
bulked  larger  than  to  their  neighbors.  It  left 
behind  it  unfortunate  legacies  of  hostility  to  the 
United  States  and,  among  the  governing  classes, 
of  deep-rooted  opposition  to  its  democratic  institu- 
tions. But  it  left  also  memories  precious  for  a 
young  people  —  the  memory  of  Brock  and  Mac- 
donell  and  De  Salaberry,  of  Laura  Secord  and 
her  daring  tramp  through  the  woods  to  warn  of 


THE  FIRST  PIPTY  VTSAHS 
American  attacks  nf  e»         ^ 

memory  of  sacrifice  7^ J       ^'■'*'*'''»*f"».v.  the 
t'>atcL-d„otcoSt;fo::^"^''"''°^--«re 

•nen  of  the  United  stT       .        "'"'*'"  *'"'  "'«'«■''- 

tHe  u„con.»„mt  U^    "'  ''""  ^"■''"■"  '"-' 
^'^hing  war  bet!       ..        "  ^"^  ^*^P  t'"-*'^ 

-ntTthe'^^rScrirr""^"'''-- 

«-<-di-goneh„ndJt^\ly'';^,  ^"^^^  °°' 
->th  one  eighteen-pounder  tho'u^h  7"'°°'^ 
observed  in  the  letter.  pZ^7  ^^  '"""^^ 
• -e  relationship  .i^JZtZfoT"'  °' 
Had  not  this  airreem..nt  •  '"**^  ^o'  »  century, 
bud.  fleets  anTTrrnlrr.  ''^'''"^'''•^'»  ^i 
and  mcreased  th  ?Jntf    7  """'  ^'^  "'"'- 

bood  of  conflict.  Z7.rZr'  "'^"''"■■ 

P-Pan-.tosoundits.es^Iltor'"''^ 


CHAPTERO 


TBB  PIOBT  rOR  SELrKMYKKmOCNT 


The  history  of  Britiih  North  America  in  the  quar- 
ter of  a  century  that  followed  the  War  of  IBIS  ia  in 
the  main  the  homely  tale  of  pioneer  life.  Slowly 
little  clearings  in  the  vast  forest  were  widened  and 
won  to  order  and  abundance;  slowly  community 
was  linked  to  community;  and  out  of  the  growing 
intercourse  there  developed  the  complex  of  ways 
and  habits  and  interests  that  make  up  the  everyday 
life  of  a  people. 

All  the  provinces  called  for  settlers,  and  they  did 
not  call  in  vain.  For  a  time  northern  New  England 
continued  to  overflow  into  the  Eastern  Townships 
of  Lower  Canada,  the  rolling  lands  south  of  the  St. 
Lawrence  which  had  been  left  untouched  by  river- 
bound  seigneur  and  habitant.  Into  Upper  Canada, 
as  well,  many  individual  immigrants  came  from 
the  south,  some  of  the  best  the  Republic  had 
to  give,  merchants  and  manufacturers  with  little 

M 


™e«oht«,rselk.oovernment« 

<»P«t«]   but  much   ■iiM.j       . 

«ti«».i.„d  Jill""'  ""''■>'«»*• 


MldOCOPY  >IS01UTI0N   II$T  CHA«T 

(ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2| 


^ 

1^ 

3.2 
3.6 

|2j2 

4.0 

■  2.0 

1.8 


l^^i^ 


^  APPLIED  IM/^GE     In 

^SFm  '653  fas)  Mam   Street 

STf  Ho<:t>e*t«r,    Ne*   York         U609        USA 

^S  (^'6)   «82  -  OMO  -  Phone 

^3  (^16)  288-  59e9  -Fa> 


1 1 


56  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

came  to  St.  John  and  Quebec  for  timber,  Canada 
and  the  provinces  by  the  sea  received  a  notable 
share.  In  the  quarter  of  a  century  following  the 
peace  with  Napoleon,  British  North  America  re- 
ceived more  British  emigrants  than  the  United 
States  and  the  Australian  colonies  together,  though 
many  were  merely  birds  of  passage. 

The  country  west  of  the  Great  Lakes  did  not 
share  in  this  flood  of  settlement,  except  for  one 
tragic  interlude.     Lord  Selkirk,  a  Scotchman  of 
large  sympathy  and  vision,  convinced  that  emi- 
gration was  the  cure  for  the  hopeless  misery  he  saw 
around  him,  acquired  a  controlling  interest  in  the 
Hudson's  Bay  Company,  and  sought  to  plant  colo- 
nies in  a  vast  estate  granted  from  its  domains. 
Between  1811  and  1816  he  sent  out  to  Hudson 
Bay,  and  thence  to  the  Red  River,  two  or  three 
hundred  crofters  from  the  Highlands  and  the  Ork- 
neys. A  little  later  these  were  joined  by  some  Swiss 
soldiers  of  fortune  who  had  fought  for  Canada  in 
the  War  of  1812.    But  Selkirk  had  reckoned  with- 
out the  partners  of  the  North-West  Company  of 
Montreal,  who  were  not  prepared  to  permit  mere 
herders  and  tillers  to   disturb  the  Indians  and 
the  game.    The  Nor'Westers  attacked  the  helpless 
colonists  and  massacred  a  score  of  them.    Selkii-k 


I.  I 


.'.I.  IHK  CVSArHAN    iMAIlNiON 

','i  :ue  I'l  ^1.  John  nn'l  (^ii<hi:<'  for  liml>er.  Can  I'la 
jiid  Hi"  provinrcs  hv  ti.<,  sta  rix-pivc<i  h  notable 
•  ii.jre.  Jn  the  qutrter  of  h  ccv.'nry  iuiU-vnng  the 
peaw  vi'iU.  NiiPi>Um>u,  Bnnsh  Niirtr.  Amcicii  rc- 
r.-ivftj  nior-  Drilish  .-r.  .(."-nrit-  tlihn  ihe  TTtiiti!ti 
.-liiitef  aiul  tlic  Xu.-ilral' .'.  ^  "iloniis  !i)}4i-lhr--  ''ii.i./'n 
n.iiny  wcri'  iiiprciy  binl'«  >  i  (lassa^c 

Th'-  country  wf;<<  <  f' 
Nhart-  in  this  fit*!?'!  'tf  ■ 

t.agic  iiiUTludo,      l><r>; 

'.irgc  ."yi.ipa'.hy   ii.ii,', 

i/ration  v-!ii  t'ifci! 


>!■  GnMt  Lakf--  (in!  ik;* 
t'l-nienl,  oxcfpt  tor  one 

.-jkirk,  a  Scotdiman  of 
'•i'-nl  liiat   PDii- 
niv.t'rv  he  siiw 


Aa\AAii'.  «atvi 


;i..„i„,;,  :.,..ul- .>'■>■ 

,  ,,-s  jii  ■   inr>ni  i*s  .ir.ii!*ir..«. 

HftWtVU     ISll     ail-i      ii'lJ     !  -•    !-'I-'    «'>lt     t-J    IilKi<10tl 

ilay,  ami  llurn-  to  ih^  R<-ii  !{>mt,  twi.  or  ihrce 
luiiulred  iTo:hr-  rrt.ni  Ihc  Ilij'iiiar.Us  a.ni  tlic Ork- 
neys.  A'iitlo  l;ii.-r  ti\e.'>t'  k>  .-     iiim-d  by  someS'niss 

olditrs  of  fortune  who  S' ■',  'oj^'ht  /..r  Canada  in 
Ui'.  NVar  of  181i.  Hut  -rii.iik  hsd  reckoned  with- 
out t'..-  inirtnws  o_(  ti-    NnrUi-WVst  Compnfiv  i>f 

vlotitriN,!.  who  were  not  jircjiired  'o  p'Ttnit  mere 
Hrti.Ts  .'  liliei-.  ic  ui-tur!»  !!u-  Ji.iia...-  and 
Ui.-iiui.-it  !!i!  N' or  VN  ester-,  uttu'lvi  i  he  helple:..- 
i.-oi«i!i-"^  -i!id  iiia>.--acred  n  af.of'-  ..'f  •jieiii.    Selkirk 


'1 1 


I 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  SELF-GOVElvNMENT  a? 
retorted  in  kind.  leading  out  an  armed  band  which 
seized  the  Nor'Westers'  chief  post  at  Fort  Will- 
iam. The  war  was  then  transferred  to  the  courts, 
with  heart-breaking  delays  and  endless  expense. 
At  last  Selkirk  died  broken  in  spirit,  and  most 
of  his  colonists  drifted  to  Canada  or  across  the 
border.  But  a  handful  held  on,  and  for  fifty 
years  their  little  settlement  on  the  Red  River 
remained  a  solitary  outpost  of  colonization. 

Once  arrived  in  Canada,  the  settler  soon  found 
that  he  had  no  primrose  path  before  him.  Canada 
remained  for  many  years  a  land  of  struggling 
pioneers,  who  had  little  truck  or  trade  with  the 
world  out  of  sight  of  their  log  shacks.  The  habi- 
tant on  the  seigneuries  of  Lower  Canada  continued 
to  farm  as  his  grandf  ither  had  farmed,  finding  his 
holding  suflScient  for  his  modest  needs,  even  though 
divided  into  ever  narrower  ribbons  as  le  ban  Dim 
sent  more  and  yet  more  sons  to  share  the  heritage. 
The  English-speaking  settler,  equipped  with  ax 
and  sickle  and  flail,  with  spinning  wheel  and  iron 
kettle,  lived  a  life  almost  equally  primiUve  and 
self-contained.  He  and  his  good  wife  grew  the 
wheat,  the  com,  and  the  potatoes,  made  the  soap 
and  the  candles,  the  maple  sugar  and  the  "yarbs," 


lu 


58  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

ie  deerskin  shoes  and  the  homespun  cloth  that 
met  their  needs.    They  had  little  to  buy  and  little 
to  sell.    In  spite  of  the  preference  which  Great 
Britain  gave  Canadian  grain,  in  return  for  the 
preference  exacted  on  British  manufactured  goods, 
practically  no  wheat  was  exported  until  the  close 
of  this  period.    The  barrels  of  potash  and  pearl- 
ash  leached  out  from  the  a''    i  of  the  splendid 
hardwood  trees  which  he  burned  as  enemies  were 
the  chief  source  of  ready  money  for  the  back- 
woods settler.    The  one  substantial  export  of  the 
colonies  came,  not  from   the  farmer's  clearing, 
but  from  the  forest.     Great  rafts  of  square  pine 
timber   were  floated   down   the  Ottawa   or   the 
St.  John  every  spring  to  be  loaded  for  England. 
The  lumberjack  lent  picturesqueness  to  the  land- 
scape and  the  vocabulary  and  circulated  ready 
money,  but  his  industry  did  little  directly  to  ad- 
vance permanent  settlement  or  the  wise  use  of 
Canadian  resources. 

The  self-contained  life  of  each  community  and 
each  farm  pointed  to  the  lack  of  good  means  of 
transport.  New  Brunsmck  and  the  Canadas  were 
fortunate  in  the  possession  of  great  lake  and  river 
systems,  but  these  were  available  only  in  summer 
and  were  often  impeded  by  falls  and  rapids.    On 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  SELF-GOVERNMENT  50 
these  waters  the  Indian  bark  canoe  had  given  way 
to  the  French  bateau,  a  square-rigged  flat-bot- 
tomed boat,  and  after  the  war  the  bateau  shared 
the  honors  with  the  larger  Durham  boat  brought 
in  from  "the  States." 

Canadians  took  their  full  share  in  developing 
steamship  transportation.   In  1809.  two  years  after 
Fulton's  success  on  the  Hudson,  John  Molson  built 
and  ran  a  steamer  between  Montreal  and  Quebec. 
The  first  vessel  to  cross  the  Atlantic  wholly  under 
steam,  the  Royal  WiUiam,  was  built  in  Quebec  and 
sailed  from  that  port  in  1833.     Following  and  rival- 
ing American  enterprise,  side-wheelers,  marvels  of 
speed  and  luxury  for  the  day,  were  put  on  the  lakes 
in  the  thirties.    Canals  were  built,  the  Lachine 
in  1821-85,  the  Welland  around  Niagara  Falls  in 
1884-29,  and  the  Rideau,  as  a  military  undertak- 
ing, in  1826-38,  all  in  response  to  the  stimulus 
'  .  en  by  De  Witt  Clinton,  who  had  begun  the  "Erie 
Ditch  "  in  1817.   On  land,  road  making  made  slower 
progress.     The  blazed  trail  gave  way  to  the  cor- 
duroy road,  and  the  pack  horse  to  the  oxcart  or  the 
stage.    Upper  Canada  had  the  honor  of  inventing, 
m  1835.  the  plan.',  road,  which  for  some  years  there-' 
after  became  the  fashion  through  the  forested  Stetes 
to  the  south.  But  at  best  neither  roads  nor  vehicles 


go  THE  CANADAN  DOMINION 

were  fitted  for  cwrying  Urge  lowU  from  inUnd 

farms  to  waterside  marketa. 

Money  and  banks  were  as  necessary  to  develop 
intercourse  as  roads  and  canaU.    Until  after  the 
War  of  1812.  when  army  gold  and  army  bilb  ran 
freelv.  money  wis  rare  and  barter  served  pioneer 
needs.    For  many  years  after  the  war  a  jumble  of 
English  sovereigns  and  shillings,  of  Spanish  dollars. 
French  crowns,  and  American  silver,  made  up  the 
currency  in  use.  circulating  sometimes  by  weight 
and  sometimes  by  tale,  at  rates  that  were  con- 
stantly shifting.    The  position  of  the  colonies  as  a 
link  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  SUtes 
was  curiously  illustrated  in  the  currency  system. 
The  motley  jumble  of  coins  in  use  were  rated  in 
Halifax  currency,  a  mere  money  of  account  or 
bookkeeping  standard,  with  no  actual  coins  to 
correspond,  adapted  to  both  English  and  Umted 
States  currency  systems.    The  unit  was  the  pound, 
divided  into  shillings  and  pence  as  in  England, 
but  the  pound  was  made  equal  to  four  dollars  m 
American  money;  it  took  £1   48.  4d.  in  HaUas 
currency  to  make  £lsterUng.    Still  more  cunous 
was  the  influence  of  American  banking.    Montreal 
merchants  in  1808  took  up  the  ideas  of  Alexander 
Hamilton  and  after  several  vain  attempts  founded 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  SELF.GOVERNMENT  01 
the  Bulk  of  Montreal  in  1817,  with  those  feature 
of  government  r  Uarter.  branch  bank*,  and  re«tric- 
tion«  a«  to  the  proportion  of  debU  to  capital  r-'! 
the  holding  of  real  property  which  had  marked 
Hamilton's  plan.  But  while  Canadian  banks,  one 
after  another,  were  founded  on  the  same  model  and 
throughout  adhered  to  an  asset-secured  currency 
basis.  Hamilton's  own  country  abandon.-d  his  ideas, 
usually  for  the  worse. 

In  the  social  life  of  the  cities  the  influence  o.  the 
official  classes  and.  in  Halifax  and  Quebec,  of  the 
British  redcoats  stationed  there  was  ail  pervading. 
In  the  country  the  pioneers  took  what  diversions 
a  hard  life  permitted.    There  were  "bees"  and 
"frolics."  ranging  from  strenuous  bam  raisings, 
with  heavy  drinking  and  fighting,  to  mild  apple 
parings  or  quilt  patchings.    There  were  the  visits 
of  the  Yankee  peddler  with  his  "notions."  his  wel- 
come pack,  and  his  gossip.    Churches  grew,  thanks 
in  part  to  grants  of  government  land  or  old  endow- 
ments or  gifts  from  missionary  societies  overseas, 
but  more  to  the  zeal  of  lay  preachers  and  circuit 
riders.     Schools  fared  worse.     In  Lower  Canada 
there  was  an  excellent  system  of  classical  schools 
for  the  priests  and  professional  classes,  and    here 
were  numerous  convents  which  tought  the  girls. 


M  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

but  the  h»bit*nU  were  for  the  mort  p«t  quite 
untouched  by  book  learning.    In  Upper  CabmU 
grammar  ichooli  and  academie*  "vere  founded  with 
commendable  promptness,  and  a  common  school 
system  was  esUblished  in  1816.  but  granU  were 
niggardly  and  compulsion  was  lacking.    Even  at 
the  close  of  the  thirties  only  one  child  in  seven  was 
in  school,  and  he  was,  as  often  as  not,  committed  to 
the  tender  mercies  of  some  broken-down  pensioner 
or  some  ancient  tippler  who  could  barely  sign  his 
mark.    There  was  but  little  administrative  control 
by  the  provincial  authorities.   The  textbooks  in  use 
came  largely  from  the  United  SUtes  and  glorified 
that  land  and  all  iU  ways  in  the  best  Fourth-of-July 
manner,  to  the  scandal  of  the  loyal  elect.   The  press 
was  represented  by  a  few  weekly  newspaoers;  only 
one  daily  existed  in  Upper  Canada  before  1840. 

Against  this  background  there  developed  during 
the  period  1815-41  a  tense  constitutional  struggle 
which  was  to  exert  a  profound  influence  on  the 
making  of  the  nation.  The  stage  on  which  the 
drama  was  enacted  was  a  small  one,  and  the  actors 
were  little  known  to  the  world  of  their  day,  but 
the  drama  hnd  an  interest  of  its  own  and  no  little 
significance  for  the  future. 


THE  FIGHT  TOR  SELP^VERNMENT   8S 
In  one  upect  the  .tniggle  for  aelf-government  in 
Bntuh  North  Americ  wu  .imply  a  loci  m.ni- 
fe.Ution  of  •  world-wide  movement  which  found 
more  noUble  expreMion  in  other  lands.    After  a 
troubled  dawn,  democracy  wa*  coming  to  iu  own. 
In  England  the  black  reaction  which  had  identified 
all  propoMis  for  reform  with  treasonable  sympathy 
for  bloodstained  France  was  giving  way.  an  J  the 
middle  classes  were  about  to  triumph  in  the  great 
franchise  reform  of  1838.    In  the  United  States, 
after  a  generation  of  conservatism.  Jacksonian  de- 
mocracy  was  to  sweep  all  before  it.    These  de- 
velopments paralleled  and  in  some  measure  in- 
fluenced the  movement  of  events  in  the  British 
North  American  provinces.    But  this  movement 
h«l  a  color  of  its  own.    The  growth  of  self-govern- 
ment ir  an  independent  country  was  one  thing;  in 
a  colony  owing  allegiance  to  a  supreme  Parliament 
overseas,  it  was  quite  another.    The  task  of  the 
provinces -not  solved  in  thb  period,  it  is  true 
but  sq.iarely  faced  -  was  to  reconcile  democracy 
and  empire. 

The  people  of  the  Canadas  in  1781,  and  of 
the  provinces  by  the  sea  a  little  earlier,  had  been 
given  the  right  to  elect  one  house  of  the  legislature 
More  than  this  instalment  of  self-government  the 


I! 


I 


1* 
is  1 


ii: 


64  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

authorities  were  not  prepared  to  grant.  The  people, 
or  rather  the  property  holders  among  them,  might 
be  entrusted  to  vote  taxes  and  appropriations,  to 
preser.t  grievances,  and  to  take  a  share  in  legis- 
lation. They  could  not,  however,  be  permitted 
to  control  the  Government,  because,  to  sUte  an 
obvious  fact,  they  could  not  govern  themselves 
as  well  as  their  betters  could  rule  them.  Besides, 
if  the  people  of  a  colony  did  govern  themselves, 
what  would  become  of  the  rights  and  interests  of 
the  mother  country?  What  would  become  of  the 
Empire  itself? 

What  was  the  use  and  object  of  the  Empire? 
In  brief,  according  to  the  theory  and  practice  then 
in  force,  the  end  of  empire  was  the  profit  which 
comes  from  trade;  the  means  was  the  political  sub- 
ordination of  the  colonies  to  prevent  interference 
with  this  profit;  and  the  debit  entry  set  against 
this  profit  was  the  cost  of  the  diplomacy,  the  arma- 
ments, and  the  wars  required  to  hold  the  overseas 
possessions  against  other  powers.    The  poUcy  was 
still  that  which  had  been  set  forth  in  the  preamble 
of  the  Navigation  Act  of  1663.  ensuring  the  mother 
country  the  sole  right  to  sell  European  wares  in  its 
colonies:  "the  maintaining  a  greater  correspond- 
ence and  kindnesse  between  them  [the  subjects  at 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  SELF-GOVERNMENT   « 

-nt  and  Encase  of  EngliriiT^'^X'" 
ana  from  the  same  more  safe  and  cheaoe 

with  significant  chanires   th..  «u      i     •  , 

ties  relied  not  merelv  on  ♦li».v 

»u  '"<^reiy  on  their  own  powers  hut  nr. 

the  ««peration  of  friendly  classes  and  Itelu 

m  the  colonies  themselves.    Their  direct  co'tt 

'''as  exercised  in  many  wavs     Tn  I    ♦    '^^^  ™°t~' 

5  "'-nyways.    In  last  reserve  there 


.f| 


06  THE  CANADUN  DOMINION 

was  the  supreme  authority  of  King  and  ParUament 
to  bind  the  colonies  by  treaty  and  by  law  and  the 
right  to  veto  any  colonial  enactment.    This  was 
as  before  the  Revolution.    One  change  lay  m  the 
renunciation  in  1778  of  the  intention  to  use  the 
supreme  legislative  power  to  levy  taxes,  though  the 
right  to  control  the  fiscal  system  of  the  colonies  m 
conformity  with  imperial  policy  was  still  clamied 
and  practised.    In  fact,  far  from  seeking  to  secure 
a  direct  revenue,  the  British  Government  was  more 
than  content  to  pay  part  of  the  piper's  fee  for  the 
sakeofbeingabletocalltixetune.   "It  is  considered 
by  the  Well  wishers  of  Government,"  wrote  Mihies, 
Lieutenant  Governor  of  Lower  Canada,  in  1800, 
"as  a  fortunate  Circumstance  that  tiie  Revenue  is 
notatpresentequaltotiieExpenditure."   Afurther 
change  came  in  the  minute  control  exercised  by  the 
Colonial  Office,  or  ratiier  by  the  permanent  clerks 
who,  in  Charles  Buller's  phrase,  were  reaUy  "Mr 
Motiier  Country."    The  Governor  was  the  local 
agent  of  the  Colonial  Office.  He  acted  on  its  instruc- 
tions and  was  responsible  to  it.  and  to  it  alone,  for 
the  exercise  of  ike  wide  administrative  powers 
entrusted  to  him. 

But  all  these  powers,  it  was  beUeved,  would  fail 
in  tiieir  purpose  if  democracy  were  allowed  to  grow 


THE  FIGHT  FOB  SELF^VKRNMENT   67 
unchecked  in  the  colonies  themselves.    It  was  an 

bmld  up  con.    vative  social  forces   among  the 
^Pleandtog    3  a  controlling  voice  in  the  local 
jd«at.on  to  a  nonunated  and  official  class. 
It  has  been  seen  that  the  statesmen  of  1791  looked 
to  a  nommated  executive  and  legislative  coun- 
cil, an  hereditary  aristocracy,  and  an  established 
djurch  to  keep  the  colony  in  hand.    BriUsh  1^^ 
^Uon  fostered  and  supported  a  ruling  class  inX 
colomes.  and  in  turn  this  class  was  to  support 
Bnfsh  connection  and  British  control.    How  L 
pohcy.  ha^f  avowed  and  half  unconscious,  worked 
out  m  each  of  the  provinces  must  now  be  recorded. 

In  Upper  Canada  party  struggles  did  not  take 
shape  untJ  well  after  the  War  of  1812.    At  the 
foundmg  of  the  colony  the  people  had  been  veo' 
much  of  one  temper  and  one  condition.    In  time 
however,  divergences  appeared  and  gradually  har^ 
denedmto  political  divisions.     A  governing  class 
or  rather  ohque,  was  the  first  to  become  differen- 
^ated.    Its  emergence  was  slower  than  in  New 
Brunswick,  for  instance,  since  Upper  Canada  had 
received  few  of  the  Loyalists  who  were  distin- 
KUi^ed  by  social  position  or  political  experience 


i 


if 


i  I 


i, ; 


68  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

In  time  a  group  was  formed  by  the  accident  of 
occupation,  early  settiement.  residence  in  the  littie 
town  of  York,  the  capital  after  1794,  the  holding 
of  office,  or  by  some  advantage  in  wealth  or  educa- 
tion or  capacity  which  in  time  became  cumulative. 
The  group  came  to  be  known  as  the  Family  Com- 
pact.   There  had  been,  in  fact,  no  intermarriage 
among  iU  members  beyond  what  was  natural  in  a 
small  and  isolated  community,  but  the  phrase  had 
a  certain  appositeness.    They  were  closely  linked 
by  loyalty  to  Church  and  King,  by  enmity  to  re- 
pubUcs  and  repubUcans.  by  the  memory  of  tiie 
sacrifice  and  peril  tiiey  or  their  fatiiers  had  shared, 
and  by  tiie  conviction  Uiat  the  province  owed  them 
the  best  living  it  could  bestow.    This  living  they 
succeeded  in  coUecting.    "The  bench,  the  magis- 
tracy, the  high  officials  of  tiie  established  church, 
and  a  great  part  of  tiie  legal  profession,"  declared 
Lord  Durham  in  1839,  "are  filled  by  tiie  adherents 
of  tiiis  party;  by  grant  or  purchase  they  have  ac- 
quired nearly  tiie  whole  of  tiie  waste  knds  of  tiie 
province;  tiiey  are  all-powerful  in  tiie  chartered 
banks,  and  tUl  lately  shared  among  tiiemselves 
almost  exclusively  aU  offices  of  tirust  and  profit. ' 
Fortunately  the  last  absurdity  of  creating  Dukes 
of  Toronto  and  Barons  of  Niagara  Falls  was  never 


li  ' 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  SELF-GOVERNMENT  e» 
earned  through,  or  rather  was  postnoned  «  /  ii 
c-tury;  but  this  touch  was  scaren^dL  "f^ 
give  the  clique  its  cachet     Th.  T  *" 

»hiDofSirP«  .^,,  The  ten-year  govemor- 
•nip  of  Sir  Peregrine  Maitland  (1818-28)  a  n,n,» 
punctihous  pe„K>n.  gave  the  fiiushing  toucheTTo 
this  backwoods  aristocracy 

Sco'tlnTBlSle^^^----'-^ 

A....M.Nab  types,  harthtb^S:,;^ 
d.,«  to  d^tinguish  them,  but  two  of  their  „!- 
W  were  of  outstanding  capacity.    Joh,  BeverW 
Robin^n,  Attorney  General  from  1819  to  ,829  and 
thereafterfor  over  thiVty  years  Chief  Justice  was 
a  true  aristocrat,  distrustful  of  the  rabble  ";t" 
honest  and  high-minded  as  he  was  able.  seeLing  h" 
count-y's  gain,  as  he  saw  it.  not  his  own     We 
Jged  and  domineering  character,  equally  ^ 
of  h.    gbt  to     ,,  ,„,  ,^^  ^^^^^^  ^y   erum 

Z7     r.^"'"'  ^*"'^''""'  "ft^-'-d^  Bishop 

t  cZd  f^""!!"  "^  ^'^•'^*--'  ^^  ""ad  com^ 
to  Canada  from  Aberdeen  as  a  dominie  but  had 
remamed  as  an  Anglican  clergyman  in  a  capacity 
Promismg  more  advancement.  His  aboundTn^' 
gor  and  persistence  soon  made  him  the  dominant 
^rcem  the  Church,  and  with  a  convert's  Zll 
labored  to  give  it  exclusive  place  and  power 


lli 


If 


I'; 


I 


70  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

The  opposition  to  the  Family  Compact  was  of 
a  more  motley  hue,  as  is  the  way  with  oppositions. 
Opposition  became  potential  when  new  settlers 
poured  into  the  province  from  the  United  States 
or  overseas,  marked  out  from  their  Loyalist  fore- 
runners not  merely  by  differences  of  political  back- 
ground and  experience  but  by  differences  in  religion. 
The  Church  of  England  had  been  dominant  among 
the  Loyalists;  but  the  newcomers  were  chiefly 
Methodist  and  Presbyterian.  Opposition  became 
actual  with  the  rise  of  concrete  and  acute  griev- 
ances and  with  the  appearance  of  leaders  who 
voiced  the  growing  discontent. 

The  political  exclusiveness  of  the  Family  Com- 
pact did  not  rouse  resentment  half  as  deep  as  did 
their  religious,  or  at  least  denominational,  pre- 
tensions. The  refusal  of  the  Compact  to  permit 
Methodist  ministers  to  perform  the  marriage  cere- 
mony was  not  soon  forgotten.  There  were  scores 
of  settlements  where  no  clergyman  of  the  Estab- 
lished Church  of  England  or  of  Scotland  resided, 
and  marriages  here  had  been  of  necessity  per- 
formed by  other  ministers.  A  bill  passed  the 
Assembly  in  1824  legalizing  such  marriages  in 
the  past  and  giving  the  required  authority  for  the 
future;  and  when  it  was  rejected  by  the  Legislative 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  SELF-GOVERNMENT   71 

Council,  resentment  flamed  high.  An  attempt  of 
Strachan  to  indict  the  loyalty  of  practically  all  but 
the  Anghcan  clergy  intensified  this  feeling;  and  the 
critics  went  on  to  call  in  question  Uie  claims  of  his 
Church  to  estfcMishment  and  landed  endowment 

The  land  question  was  the  most  serious  Uiat 
faced  the  province.    The  administration  of  those 
m  power  was  condemned  on  tiiree  distinct  counts 
The  granting  of  land  to  individuals  had  been 
lavish;  It  had  been  lax;  and  it  had  been  marked  by 
gross  favoritism.    By  1824,  when  tiie  population 
was  only  150,000,  some  11,000,000  acves  had  been 
granted;  ninety  years  later,  when  the  population 
was  2,700,.00,  the  totiil  amount  of  improved  land 
was  only  18.000,000  acres.    Moreover  the  attempt 
to  use  vast  areas  of  the  Crown  Lands  to  endow 
solely  the  Anglican  Church  roused  bitter  jealousies 
Yet  even  these  grievances  paled  in  actual  hardsUp 
beside  the  results  of  holding  the  vast  waste  areas 
ummproved.    What  with  Crown  Reserves,  Clergy 
Reserves,  grante  to  those  who  had  served  the 
state,  and  holdings  picked  up  by  speculators  from 
soldiers  or  poorer  Loyalists  for  a  few  pounds  or  a 
few  gaUons  of  whisky,  millions  of  acres  were  held 
untenanted  and  unimproved,  waiting  for  a  rise  in 
value  as  a  consequence  of  the  toil  of  setUers  on 


■mt 


n  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

neighboring  farm*.    Not  one-tenth  of  the  I«id» 
granted  were  occupied  by  the  persona  to  whom 
they  had  been  assigned.    The  province  had  given 
away  almost  all  its  vast  heritage,  and  more  than 
nine-tenths  of  it  was  still  in  wilderness.    These 
speculative  holdings  made  immensely  more  diflS- 
cult  every  common  neighborhood  task.    At  best 
the  machinery  and  the  money  for  building  roads, 
bridges,  and  schools  were  scanty,  but  with  these 
unimproved  reserves  thrust  in  between  the  scat- 
tered shacks,  the  task  was  disheartening.    "The 
reserve  of  two-sevenths  of  the  land  for  the  Crown 
and  clergy,"  declared  the  township  of  Sandwich 
in  1817,  "must  for  a  long  time  keep  the  country  a 
wilderness,  a  harbour  for  wolves,  a  hindrance  to  a 
compact  and  good  neighbor!  ood." 

A  further  source  of  discontent  developed  in  the 
disabilities  affecting  recent  American  settlers.  A 
court  decision  in  1824  held  that  no  one  who  had 
resided  in  the  United  States  after  1783  could 
possess  or  transmit  British  citizenship,  with  which 
went  the  right  to  inherit  real  estate.  This  decision 
bore  heavily  upon  thousands  of  "late  Loyalists" 
and  more  recent  incomers.  Under  the  instructions 
of  the  Colonial  Office,  a  remedial  bill  was  intro- 
duced in  the  L^lative  Council  in  1827.  but  it  waa 


meanUme  the  men  affected  h«H  K       T  " 


;/"i- 
'.i«,i 


ui 


74  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

ud  Captain  John  Matthews,  a  half-pay  artillery 
officer.    Peter  Perry,  downright  and  rugged  and 
of  a  homely  eloquence,  represented  the  Loyalists  of 
the  Bay  of  Quints,  which  was  the  center  of  Cana- 
dian Methodii-n.    Among  the  newer  comers  from 
the  United  SUtes,  the  foremost  were  Barnabas  Bid- 
well,  who  had  been  Attorney  General  of  Massa- 
chusetts but  had  fled  to  Canada  in  1810  when 
accused  of  misappropriating  public  money,  and  his 
son,  Marshall  Sprhn!  Bidwell,  one  of  the  ablest  and 
most  single-minded  men  who  ever  entered  Cana- 
dian public  life.     From  Ireland  came  Dr.  William 
Warren  Baldwin,  whose  son  Robert,  bom  in  Cana- 
da, was  less  surpassingly  able  than  the  younger 
Bidwell  but  equally  moderate  and  equally  beyond 
suspicion  of  faction  or  self-seeking. 

How  were  these  men  to  bring  about  the  reform 
which  they  desired?  Their  first  aim  was  obviously 
to  secure  a  majority  in  the  Assembly,  and  by  the 
election  of  1828  they  attained  this  first  object. 
But  the  limits  of  the  power  of  the  Assembly  they 
soon  discovered.  Without  definite  leadership,  with 
no  control  over  the  Administration,  and  with  even 
legislative  power  divided,  it  could  effect  little. 
It  was  in  part  disappointment  at  the  failure  of 
the  Assembly  that  accounted  for  the  defeat  of  the 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  SELF-GOVERNMENT   7« 
Refom,er.m  1830.  though  four  year,  later  thi.  ver- 

e™t.t,elfshou.d  be  changed.    But  i„  Xt 
way?    Here  a  divergence  in  the  ranb  of  the  Re 

nr^^r"""'"^-  0°*P«rty.  looking  upon 
«.e  United  SUtes  a,  the  utmost  achievement  inT 
•»ocracy.  proposed  to  follow  its  example  in  making 
the  upper  house  elective  and  thus  to  give  the  peoole 
control  of  both  brand.es  of  the  Le^tu^e^! 
other  group   of  whom  Robert  Baldwin  was  the 

chef  saw  that  this  change  would  not  suiBce.    In 
the  States  the  Executive  was  also  elected  by  the 
people     Here,  where  the  Governor  would  doubt! 
less  contmue  to  be  appointed  by  the  Crown,  some 
other  means  must  be  found  to  give  the  people  full 
control.    Baldwin  found  it  in  the  BritisrSbinet 
sytem.  which  gave  real  power  to  ministers  having 
the  confidence  of  a  majority  in  Parliament.    The 
Governor  would  remain,  but  he  would  be  only  a 
fi^rehead.  a  constitutional  monarch  acting.  L 
the  K„.,.      ,y  „„  ,h,  ^^.^^  ^^  ^^  constitutional 
advisee.    Responsible  government  was  Baldwin's 
one  and  absorbmg  idea,  and  his  persistence  led  to 
'f  "  t«»;te  adoption,  along  with  a  proposal  for  an 
e  ecti^e  Council,  in  the  Reform  party's  :;ogramm^ 
«>  1834.    Delay  m  affecting  this  reform.  Baldwin 


k 


n  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

told  the  Governor  •  ye*r  later,  wm  "the  gre«t  and 
all  absorbing  grievance  before  which  all  others  sank 
into  insipnificance. "  The  remedy  could  be  applied 
"withoii  'n  the  least  entrenching  upon  the  just 
and  necessary  prerogatives  of  the  Crown,  which 
1  consider,  when  administered  by  the  Lieutenant 
Governor  through  the  medium  of  a  provincial  min- 
istry responsible  to  the  provincial  parliament,  to  be 
an  essential  part  of  the  constitution  of  the  prov- 
ince." In  brief,  Baldwin  insisted  that  Siracoc'srhe- 
toricul  outburst  in  1791,  when  he  declared  that 
Upper  Canada  was  "a  perfect  Image  and  Tran- 
script of  the  British  Government  and  Constitution," 
should  be  made  effective  in  practice. 

The  course  of  the  conflict  between  the  Compact 
and  the  Reformers  cannot  be  followed  in  detail. 
It  had  elemenU  of  tragedy,  as  when  Gourlay 
was  hounded  into  prison,  where  he  was  broken 
in  health  and  shattered  in  mind,  and  then  exiled 
from  the  province  for  criticism  of  the  Government 
which  was  certainly  no  more  severe  than  now  ap- 
pears every  day  in  Opposition  newspapers.  The 
conflict  had  elements  of  the  ludicrous,  too,  aa  when 
Captain  Matthews  was  ordered  by  his  military 
superiors  to  return  to  England  because  in  the  un- 
restrained festivities  of  New  Year's  Eve  he  had 


y' 


•  'I 
1^ 


Ml 


P  !i 


I 

k 


il! 


If 


Mtfl  f 


n 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  SELF-GOVERNMENT   77 

called  on  a  strolling  troupe  to  play  Yankee  Doodle 
and  had  shouted  to  the  company,  "Hats  off";  or 
when  Governor  Maitland  overturned  fourteen  feet 
of  the  Brock  Monument  to  remove  a  copy  of  Mac- 
kenzie's journal,  the  Colonial  Advocate,  which  had 
inadvertently  been  included  in  the  comer  stone. 

The  weapons  of  the  Reforn"ers  were  the  plat- 
form, the  press,  and  investigations  and  reports 
by  parliamentary  committees.  The  Compact  hit 
back  in  its  own  way.  Every  critic  was  denounced 
as  a  traitor.  Offending  editors  were  put  in  the 
pillory.  Mackenzie  was  five  times  expelled  from 
the  House,  only  to  be  returned  five  times  by  his 
stubborn  supporters.  Matters  were  at  a  deadlock, 
and  it  became  clear  either  that  the  British  Parlia- 
ment, which  alone  could  amend  the  Constitution, 
must  intervene  or  else  that  the  Reformers  would 
be  driven  to  desperate  paths.  But  before  mat- 
ters came  to  this  pass,  an  acute  crisis  had  arisen 
in  Lower  Canada  which  had  its  effect  on  all 
the  provinces. 


.'t  I 


(J 


'fS 


In  Lower  Canada,  the  conflict  which  had  been 
smoldering  before  the  war  had  since  then  burst  into 
flame.  The  issues  of  this  conflict  were  more  clear- 
cut  than  in  any  of  the  other  provinces.   A  coherent 


3  |j^ 


78  THK  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

opposition  had  formed  earlier,  and  frcn  beginning 
to  end  it  dominated  the  Assembly.   The  governing 
forces  were  outwardly  much  the  same  as  in  Upper 
Canada  —  a  Lieute:iant  Governor  responsible  to  the 
Colonial  Office,  an  Executive  Council  appointed 
by  the  Crown  but  coming  to  have  the  independ- 
ent power  of  a  well-entrenched  bureaucracy,  and 
a  Legislative  Council  nominated  by  the  Crown 
and,  until  nearly  the  end  of  the  period,  composed 
chiefly  of  the  same  men  who  served  in  theExecutive. 
The  little  clique  in  control  had  much  less  popu- 
lar backing  tlian  the  Family  Compact  of  Upper 
Canada  and  were  of  lower  caliber.   Robert  Christie, 
an  English-speaking  member  of  the  Assembly,  who 
may  be  counted  an  unprejudiced  witness  since  he 
was  four  times  expelled  by  the  majority  in  that 
house,  refers  to  the  real  rulers  of  the  province  as 
"a  few  rapacious,  overbearing,  and  irresponsible 
officials,  without  stake  or  other  connexion  in  the 
country  than  their  interests."    At  their  head  stood 
Jonathan  Sewell,  a  Massachusetts  Loyalist  who  had 
come  to  Lower  Canada  by  way  of  New  Brunswick 
in  1789,  and  who  for  over  forty  years  as  Attorney 
General,  Chief  Justice,  or  member  of  Executive 
and  Legislative  Councils,  was  the  power  behind 
the  throne. 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  SELF-GOVERNMENT  T» 
The  opposition  to  the  bureaucrat,  at  fi«t  in- 
duded  both  English  and  French  elements,  bu  ie 
Enghsh  rn.nor.ty  w.re  pulled  in  contrary  ways 
The.r  antecedents  were  not  such  as  to  lead  ZL 
to  accept  meekly  either  the  political  or  the  ^^ 
pretens.ons  of  the  "Chateau  Clique";  the  A^ri 
can  setters  in  the  Eastern  Tolshipfand Tj 
Scotch  and  American  merchants  who  were  buHd 

2"PQ"ec  and  Montreal,  had  called   or  2^: 
government,  not  government  from  above.    Yet 

and  made  them  unwilling  to  accept  in  place  of  thf 
bur^ucrats  the  dominance  of  an  unprogr  iL 

'on :;  rrY  ■  '''^  ''^*  '^^^^^^  °^  ^^e  opposi! 

VVa.  of  1812  ^.,s  James  Stuart,  the  son  of  the  lead- 
mg  Anghcan  clergyman  of  his  day,  but  he  soon  fell 

Zh  't  ?T  '  ""'"^^^  °^  "-^  bureaucn«>y. 
H.sb  other  Andrew,  however,  kept  up  for  ma.J 
years  onger  a  more  disinterested  fight.  Another 
Scot,  John  Ne.lson.  editor  of  the  Quebec  Ga:^ 
was  u„,,  ,833  foremost  among  the  as^ilantt; 
the  bureaucracy.  But  steadily,  as  th  extreme 
nauonahst  claims  of  the  Prend.-speaking  mS 
provoked  reprisals  and  as  the  conviction  U  upon 
themmonty  that  they  would  never  beanythingC 


I 
I' 


y 


i     : 


I-  i 


ti     h  il 


80  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

a  minority, '  most  of  them  accepted  clique  rule  as  a 

lesser  evil  than  "rule  by  priest  and  demagogue." 

In  the  reform  movement  in  Upper  Canada  there 
were  a  multiplicity  of  leaders  and  a  constant  shift- 
ing of  groups.  In  Lower  Canada,  after  the  defec- 
tion of  James  Stuart  in  1817,  there  was  only  one 
leader,  Louis  Joseph  Papineau.  For  twenty  years 
Papineau  was  the  uncrowned  king  of  the  province. 
His  commanding  figure,  his  powers  of  oratory, 
outstanding  in  a  race  of  orators,  his  fascinating 
manners,  gave  him  an  easy  mastery  over  his  people. 
Prudence  did  not  hamper  his  flighU;  compromise 
was  a  word  not  found  in  his  vocabulary.  Few  men 
have  been  better  equipped  for  the  agitator's  task. 

His  father,  Joseph  Papineau,  though  of  humble 
birth,  had  risen  high  in  the  life  of  the  province. 
He  had  won  distinction  in  his  profession  as  a 
notary,  as  a  speaker  in  the  Assembly,  and  as  a 
soldier  in  the  defense  of  Quebec  against  the  Ameri- 
can invaders  of  1775.    In  1804  he  had  purchased 

■  The  natural  increase  of  the  French-Canadian  race  under  British 
rule  ia  one  of  the  moat  extraordinary  phenomena  in  sodal  history. 
The  following  figures  illustrate  the  rate  of  that  increase;  the  number 
was  16.417  in  1706;  69.810  in  1765;  479.886  in  18M;  697.084  m  1844. 
The  pcipulation  of  Canada  East  or  Lower  Canada  in  1844  was  madt- 
upastoUows:  French  Canadians,  S«4.«44;  Snglish  Canadians,  8»,e«0; 
English.  n,8»S;  Irish,  48.98*;  Scotch.  1S,S9S;  Americans,  11.946; 
born  in  other  oountriefc  1S«8:  plwx  of  birth  not  specified.  4688 


It 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  SELF-GOVERNMENT  81 
the  seigneury  of  La  Petite  Nation,  far  up  the 
Ottawa.  Louis  Joseph  Papineau  followed  in  h. 
father  s  footsteps.  Bom  in  1786,  he  served  loyally 
and  bravely  in  the  War  of  1812.  In  the  same  ye« 
he  entered  the  Assembly  and  made  his  place  at  a 
smgle  stroke.  Barely  three  years  after  his  election, 
he  wa.  chosen  Speaker,  and  with  a  brief  break  he 
held  that  post  for  over  twenty  years. 

Papineau  did  not  soon  or  lightly  begin  his  cru- 
sade against  the  Government.    For  the  first  five 
years  of  his  Speakership,  he  confined  himself  to  the 
routme  duties  of  his  office.     As  late  as  1820  he 
pronounced  a  glowing  eulogy  on  the  ConsUtution 
which  Great  BriUin  had  granted  the  province, 
in  that  year  he  tested  the  extent  of  the  privileges 
so  granted  by  joining  in  the  attempt  of  the  As- 
sembly to  assert  its  full  control  of  the  purse;  but 
.t  was  not  until  the  project  of  uniting  the  two 
Canada^  had  made  clear  beyond  dispute  the  hos- 
tUity  of  the  governing  powers  that  he  began  his 
unrelenting  warfare  against  them. 

There  was  much  to  be  said  for  a  reunion  of  the 
two  Canadas.  The  St.  Lawrence  bound  them 
together  though  Acts  of  Parliament  had  severed 
them.  Upper  Canada,  as  an  inland  province,  re- 
stricted ,n  its  trade  with  its  neighbor  to  the  south. 


'I 

! 

y 


i 

r 


'/»' 
n 


(I 


at  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

WW  dependent  upon  Lower  Canada  for  acceM  to 
the  outer  world.    Its  .hare  of  the  duties  collected 
at  the  Lower  Canada  ports  until  1817  had  been 
only  one-eighth,  afterwards  increased  to  one-fifUi. 
This  inequality  proved  a  constant  source  of  fric- 
tion.   The  crying  necessity  of  coBperation  for  the 
improvement  of  the  St.  Lawrence  waterway  gave 
further  ground  for  the  conttntion  that  only  by  a 
reunion  of  the  two  provinces  could  efficiency  be 
secured.    In  Upper  Canada  the  Reformers  were 
in  favor  of  this  plan,  but  the  Compact,  fearful  of 
any  disturbance  of  their  vested  interests,  tended 
to  oppose  it.    In  I-ower  Canada  the  chief  support 
came  from  the  English  element.    The  governing 
clique,  as  the  older  established  body,  had  no  doubt 
that  they  could  bring  the  western  section  under 
their  sway  in  case  of  union.    But  the  main  reason 
for  their  advocacy  was  the  desire  to  swamp  the 
French  Canadians  by  an  English  majority.   Sewell, 
the  chief  supporter  of  the  project,  frankly  took 
this  ground.    The  Governor,  Lord  Dalhousie,  and 
the  Colonial  Office  adopted  his  view;  and  in  1822 
an  attempt  was  made  to  rush  a  Union  BiU  through 
the  British  Parliament  without  any  notice  to  those 
most  concerned.    It  was  blocked  for  the  moment 
by  the  opposition  of  a  Whig  group  led  by  Burdett 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  SELF-GOVERNMENT  83 
and  Mackintosh;  and  then  Papineau  and  Neilron 
sailed  to  London  and  succeeded  in  inducing  the 
Ministry  to  stay  iU  hand.  The  danger  was  avert- 
ed; but  Papineau  had  become  convinced  that  if  his 
people  were  to  retain  the  rights  given  them  by  their 
•Sacred  Charter"  they  would  have  to  fight  for 
them.  If  they  were  to  save  their  power,  they  must 
increase  it. 

How  could  this  be  done?    Baldwin's  bold  and 
revolutionary  policy  of  making  the  Executive  re- 
sponsible to  the  Assembly  did  not  seem  within 
the  range  of  practical  politics.    It  meant  in  practice 
the  abandonment  of  British  control,  and  this  the 
Colonial  Office  was  not  willing  to  grant.    Antoine 
Panet  and  other  Assembly  leaders  had  suggested 
in  1815  that  it  would  be  well,  "if  it  were  possible, 
to  grant  a  number  of  places  as  Councillors  or  other 
posts  of  honour  and  of  profit  to  those  who  have  most 
influence  over  the  majority  in  the  Assembly,  to 
hold  so  long  as  they  maintained  this  influence." 
and  James  Stuart  urged  the  same  tentative  sugges- 
tion a  year  later.    But  even  before  this  the  Colonial 
OflSce  had  made  clear  its  position.      His  Majesty's 
Government."  declared  the  Colonial  Secretary, 
Lord  Bathurst,  in  1814,  "never  can  admit  so  novel 
&  inconvenient  a  Principle  as  that  of  allowing  the 


'fl 


/'.?:* 


] 


84  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

Governor  o!  a  Colony  to  b«  diverted  ol  hii  re- 
.poMibility  [to  the  Colonial  Office)  for  the  acU 
done  during  hi.  administration  or  permit  him  to 
shield  himself  under  the  advice  of  any  PertoM, 
however  respecUble.  either  from  their  character 

or  their  Office." 

Two  other  course*  had  the  sanction  of  precedent, 
one  of  English,  the  other  of  American  example. 
The  English  House  of  Commons  had  secured  lU 
dominant  place  in  the  government  of  the  country 
by  its  control  of  the  purse.    Why  should  not  the 
Assembly  do  likewise?    One  obvious  difficulty  la,y 
in  the  fact  that  the  Assembly  was  not  the  sole 
authority  in  raising  revenue.    The  British  Parha- 
ment  had  retained  the  power  to  levy  certain  dutiM 
as  part  of  its  system  of  commercial  control,  and 
other  casual  and  territorial  dues  lay  in  the  nght 
of  the  Crown.     From  1820,  therefore,  the  As- 
sembly's main  aim  was  twofold  -  to  obtam  con- 
trol of  these  remaining  sources  of  revenue,  and  by 
means  of  this  power  to  bludgeon  the  Legislative 
Council  and  the  Governor  into  compUance  with 
its  wishes.    The  Colonial  Office  made  concessions, 
offering  to  resign  » "  its  taxing  powers  in  return  for 
a  permanent  civU  Ust,  that  is.  an  assurance  that 
the  salaries  of  the  chief  officUls  would  not  be 


'J 


THE  WGHT  FOR  SELF-GOVERNMENT  M 

^tf  but. « .  would  h.ve  hampered  the  full  us,  ^ 
therevenue  bludgeon,  it  w«  ««mfu%  dechned 

^n  .tyled  then..elve..  wa.  to  conquer  the  Le^.. 

^te  of  h.,  early  prejudice.,  wa,  drawn  more  «.d 
mo«  ,„to  .ympathy  with  the  form  of  democrt^y 
worked  out  in  the  United  State..  I„  f.ct  ZZ 
only  looked  to  it  a.  a  model  but.  a.  "e  thLiL 

wore  on.  he  came  to  hope  that  moral,  if  not^yt 
cal..upport  might  be  found  there  for  his  campa^ 
.g«n.t  the  English  Government.  After  ISS^tt^ 
demand  for  an  elective  Legislative  Council  became 
more  and  more  insistent. 
The  struggle  soon  reached  a  deadlock.    Gover- 

Kempt.  Lord  Aylmer.  all  in  turn  failed  to  allay 
the  storm  The  Assembly  raised  its  claims  eaS 
session  and  fulminated  against  all  the  oppcl^ 

tered  by  contmued  opposition,  carried  away  by 

demands.     Many  of  his  moderate  supporters - 
Neilson.  Andrew  Stuart.  Quesnel.  Cuvillier  -  fell 


/• 


/    ,*• 


1/         I 


if 

I 


M  THE  CANADUN  DOMINION 

•way,  only  to  b«  overwhelmed  in  the  fiwt  electioo 
•t  a  wave  of  the  great  tribune'i  hand.  BustneM  wai 
blocked,  tuppliei  were  not  voted,  and  civil  lervac  -* 
made  ihift  without  salary  as  best  they  could. 

The  British  Government  awoke,  or  half  awoke, 
to  the  seriousness  of  the  situation.     In  IBM  a 
Royal  Commission  of  three,  with  the  new  Gover- 
nor General,  Lord  Gosford,  as  chairman,  was  ap- 
pointed to  make  inquiries  and  to  recommend  a 
policy.    Gosford,  a  genial  Irishman,  showed  him- 
self most  conciliatory  in  both  private  intercourse 
and  public  discourse.    Unfortunately  the  rash  act 
of  the  new  Lieutenant  Governor  of  Upper  Canada, 
Sir  Francis  Bond  Head,  in  publishing  the  instruc- 
tions of  the  Colonial  Office,  showed  that  the  policy 
of  Downing  Street  was  the  futil"  one  of  concilia- 
tion without  concession.    The  Assembly  once  more 
refused  to  grant  supplies  without  redress  of  griev- 
ances.    The  Commissioners  made  their  report  op- 
posing any  substantial  change.      In  March,  1837, 
Lord  John  Russell,  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer 
in  the  Melbourne  Ministry,  opposed  only  by  a 
handful  of  Radical  and  Irish  members,  carried 
through  the  British  Parliament  a  series  of  resolu- 
tions authorizing  the  Governor  to  take  from  the 
Treasury  without  the  consent  of  the  Assembly  the 


\\ 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  SELF-GOVERNMENT   87 
f^^di  needed  for  dvU  •dminutmUon,  offering  con- 
trol of  all  revenuei  in  return  for  a  permanent  civU 
li«t.  and  rejecUng  absolutely  the  demand*  alike  for 
a  responiible  Executive  and  for  an  elecUve  Council. 
Britiah  »tateiman«hip  waa  bankrupt.    It«  final 
anawer  to  the  demands  for  redrew  was  to  sUnd  pat. 
Papineau,  without  seeing  what  the  end  would  be. 
held  to  bis  course.     Younger  men,  carried  away 
by  the  passions  he  had  aroused,  pushed  on  still 
more  recklessly.    If  reform  could  not  be  obUined 
within  the  British  Empire,  it  must  be  sought  by 
setting  up  an  independent  republic  on  the  St. 
Lawrence  or  by  annexation  to  the  United  States. 

In  Upper  Canada,  at  the  same  time,  matters 
had  come  to  the  verge  of  rebellion.  Sir  John  Col- 
^-me  hud.  jii.« .  before  retiring  as  Lieulenanl  Gov- 
emor  in  1836.  added  fuel  to  the  flames  by  creat- 
mg  and  endowing  some  forty-four  rectories,  thua 
strengthening  the  grip  of  the  Anglican  Church 
on  the  province.  His  successor,  Sir  Francis  Bond 
Head,  was  a  man  of  such  rash  and  unbalanced 
judgment  as  to  lend  support  to  the  tradition  that 
he  was  appointed  by  mistake  for  his  cousin,  Ed- 
mund Head,  who  was  made  Governor  of  United 
Canada   twenty   years   later.    He  appointed   to 


r' 


88  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

his  Executive  Council  three  Reformers,  Baldwin, 
Rolph,  and  Dunn,  only  to  make  clear  by  his  re- 
fusal to  consult  them  his  inability  to  understand 
their  demand  for  responsible  government.  All  the 
members  of  the  Executive  Council  thereupon  re- 
signed, and  the  Assembly  refused  supplies.  Head 
dissolved  the  House  and  appealed  to  the  people. 

The  weight  of  executive  patronage,  the  insist- 
ence of  the  Governor  that  British  connection  was 
at  stake,  the  alarms  caused  by  some  injudicious 
statements  of  Mackenzie  and  his  Radical  ally  in 
England,  Joseph  Hume,  and  the  defection  of  the 
Methodists,  whose  leader,  Egerton  Ryerson,  had 
quarreled  with  Mackenzie,  resulted  in  the  over- 
whehning  defeat  of  the  Reformers.  The  sting  of 
defeat,  the  failure  of  the  Family  Compact  to  carry 
out  their  eleventh  hour  promises  of  reform,  and 
the  passing  of  Lord  John  Russell's  reactionary 
resolutions  convinced  a  section  of  the  Reform  party, 
in  Upper  Canada  as  well  as  in  Lower  Canada,  that 
an  appeal  to  force  was  the  only  way  out. 

Toward  the  end  of  1837  armed  rebellion  broke 
out  in  both  the  Canadas.  In  both  it  was  merely  a 
flash  in  the  pan.  In  Lower  Canada  there  had  been 
latterly  much  use  of  the  phrases  of  revolution  and 
some  drilling,  but  rebellion  was  neither  definitely 


THE  nCHT  FOR  SELF-GOVERNMENT  89 
planned  nor  carefully  wganized.    The  more  ex- 
treme leaders  of  the  Patriotes  simply  drked  ;ntn  it. 
and  the  actual  outbreak  was  a  haph  .zanj  affair. 
Alarmed  by  the  sudden  and  seemingly  .oncerled 
departure  of  Papineau  and  some  of  his  lieutenants. 
Nelson.  Brown,  and  O'Callaghan.  from  Montreal, 
the  Government  gave  orders  for  their  arrest.    The 
I^tty  skirmish  that  followed  on  November  16. 
1837.  was  the  signal  for  the  rallying  of  armed  habit- 
ants around  impromptu  leaders  at  various  points 
Ihe  rismg  was  local  and  spasmodic.    The  vast 
body  of  the  habitants  stood  aloof.    The  Catholic 
Church  which  earlier  had  sympathized  with  Pap- 
meau.  had  parted  from  him  when  he  develops! 
radical  and  republican  views.     Now  the  strong 
exhortations  of  the  clergy  to  the  faithful  counted 
for  much  m  keeping  peace,  and  in  one  view  justi- 
fied   he  pohcy  of  the  British  Government  in  seek- 
«g  to  purchase  their  favor.     The  Quebec  and 
Three  Rivers  districts  remained  quiet.     In  the 
Richeheu  and  Montreal  districts,  where  disaffec- 
tion was  strongest,  the  habitants  lacked  leadership, 
disc^hne  and  touch  with  other  groups,  and  were 
a^med  only  with  old  flintlocks,  scythes,  or  clubs. 
Here  and  there  a  brave  and  skillful  leader,  such  as 
Dr.  Jean  Olivier  Ch^nier.  was  thrown  up  by  the 


I        ). 


'   IS 


If, I 

Hi 


it; 


90  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

stress,  and  in  more  than  one  skirmish  the  habit- 
ants fought  bravely,  but  from  the  start  the  rising 
was  doomed.  British  regulars  supported  by  Eng- 
lish and  French  volimteers  speedily  stamped  it 
out.  The  leaders  fled  to  the  United  States  or  were 
made  prisoners,  and  in  a  brief  three  weeks  the 
fighting  was  over. 

In  Upper  Canada  there  was  more  deliberate  plan- 
ning and  careful  organization  but  even  less  popular 
support.  Mackenzie,  with  Rolph  and  Duncombe 
as  his  chief  supporters,  organized  committees 
throughout  the  province.  Early  in  December,  his 
hand  forced  by  the  outbreak  in  Lower  Canada, 
Mackenzie  with  less  than  a  thousand  followers 
endeavored  to  seize  Toronto,  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment. The  province  was  stripped  of  regular 
troops,  and  the  Governor  was  incapable;  but  the 
rebels,  save  for  one  old  Dutch  soldier  of  fortune. 
Van  Egmond,  had  no  experienced  leader.  After 
a  stage  skirmish  with  the  loyal  militia  they  broke 
and  fled.  Mackenzie  and  Rolph  escaped  to  the 
United  States.  With  his  headquarters  at  Buffalo, 
Mackenzie  rallied  a  force  of  border  desperadoes 
and  seized  Navy  Island  in  the  Niagara  River. 
The  border  raids  at  this  and  other  points  kept 
the  province  under  arms  for  a  year;  but,  in  view 


THE  FIGHT  FOR  SELF-GOVERNMENT   91 
of  the  hostility  of  the  greater  part  of  the  people 

This  border  warfare  came  near  to  involving 
the  Unued  States  and  Great  Britain  in  war  T! 
along   he  boundary  line  American  sympathy  wal 

strongly  w.ththerebeIs.TheFederalGovernLn" 
^omew  at  ,    ,„,.  ,„„,  ^^^^^  ^^  ^^^^^^^  ^™t. 

mg  of  ,s  terntory  a  base  of  operations  against 
we  r:  '177^=  '^\  ^'^  «^»te  Gove^me':: 
were  lax  and  the  general  public  was  openly  eager 
to  see  the  British  flag  hauled  down      RaZJ 
parties  collected  and  crossed  the  border  w^ 
bemg  molested,   and   arms   from  state  ar  enl 
found  the.r  way  into  the  raiders'  hands.    Bu  Ten 
a  Canadian  militia  force  crossed  the  Niagara  a„" 
cut  out  and  burned  a  steamer  which  wafmrr' 
to  the  Amenean  shore  and  which  was  suppJ' 
he  rebels  on  Navy  Island,  killing  one  membe' "f 
the  crew,  an  outburst  of  popular  indignation  flawed 
out  agamst  such  a  violation  of  neutraJitv     r  T 

fortunately  the  discharge  of  McLeod  for  tk^t 


i 


^1 


i  \ 


l(  J I 


92  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

evidence  opened  a.  way  out  of  the  difficult  situation. 
A  year  later  Peel  and  Webster,  representing  the 
two  countries,  exchanged  formal  explanations,  and 
the  incident  was  clo'jed. 

In  Upper  Canada  many  a  rebel  sympathizer  lay 
for  months  in  jail,  but  only  two  leaders,  Lount  and 
Matthews,  ooth  brave  men,  i.aid  the  penalty  of 
death  for  their  failure.  In  Lower  Canada  the 
new  Governor  General,  Lord  Durham,  proved  more 
clement,  merely  banishing  to  Bermuda  eight  of  the 
captured  leaders.  When,  a  year  later,  after  Dur- 
ham's return  to  England,  a  second  brief  rising  broke 
out  imder  Robert  Nelson,  it  was  stamped  out  in 
a  week,  twelve  of  the  ringleaders  were  executed, 
and  others  were  deported  to  Botany  Bay. 

The  rebellion,  it  seemed,  had  failed  and  failed 
miserably.  Most  of  the  leaders  of  the  extreme  fac- 
tions in  both  provinces  had  been  discredited,  and 
the  moderate  men  had  been  driven  into  the  govern- 
ment camp.  Yet  in  one  sense  the  rising  proved  suc- 
cessful. It  was  not  the  first  nor  the  last  time  that 
wild  and  misguided  fonce  brought  reform  where  !.ane 
and  moderate  tactics  met  only  contempt.  If  men 
were  willing  to  die  to  redress  their  wrongs)  tht  most 
easy-going  official  could  no  longer  deny  that  there 
was  a  ca«e  for  inquiry  and  possibly  for  reform. 


SK,   <" 


1 1 


U>IU)  DVHHAII 


)i 


y  \h 


f 


1".:  I  ..iMiiciiir  1I-.  v,i  .jiiiifiii.il  .,,1:  „i,,i'i 


THE  FIGHT  FOB  SELF-GOVERNMENT  98 
Lord  Melbouine'a  Government  had  acted  at 
once  in  sending  out  to  Canada,  as  Governor  General 
and  High  Commissioner  with  sweeping  powers,  one 
of  the  ablest  men  in  English  public  life.    Lord  Dur- 
ham was  an  aristocraUc  Radical,  intensely  devoted 
to  political  equality  and  equally  convinced  of  his 
own  personal  superiority.    Yet  he  had  vision,  firm- 
ness, independence,  and  his  very  rudeness  kept  him 
free  from  the  social  influences  which  had  ensnared 
many  another  Governor.     Attended  by  a  gorgeous 
retinue  and  by  some  able   working  secretaries, 
including  Charles  Buller,  Carlyle's  pupil,  he  made 
a  rapid  survey   of  Upper   and   Lower   Canada. 
Suddenly,  after  five  crowded  months,  his  mission 
ended.    He  had  left  at  home  active  enemies  and 
lukewarm  friends.   Lord  Brougham,  one  of  his  foes, 
called  in  question  the  legality  of  his  edict  banish- 
ing the  rebel  leaders  to  Bermuda.    The  Ministers 
did  not  back  him,  as  they  should  have  done;  and 
Durham  indignantly  resigned  and  hurried  back 
to  England. 

Three  months  later,  however,  his  Report  ap- 
peared and  his  mission  stood  vindicated.  There 
are  few  British  state  papers  of  more  fame  or  more 
worth  than  Durham's  Report.  It  was  not,  however, 
the  beginning  and  the  end  of  wisdom  in  colonial 


i 


id 


il 


M  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

policy,  M  hai  often  been  declared.  Much  that 
Durham  advocated  was  not  new,  and  much  has 
been  condemned  by  time.  His  main  suggestions 
were  four:  to  unite  the  Canadas,  to  swamp  the 
French  Canadians  by  such  union,  to  gm.nt  a 
measure  of  responsible  government,  and  to  set  up 
municipal  government.  His  attitude  towards  the 
French  Canadians  was  prejudiced  and  shortsighted. 
He  was  not  the  first  to  recommend  resixjnsible  gov- 
ernment, nor  did  his  approval  make  it  a  reality. 
Yet  with  all  qualifications  his  Report  showed  a  con- 
fidence in  the  liberating  end  so'ving  power  of  self- 
government  which  was  the  all-essential  thing  for 
the  English  Government  to  see;  and  his  reasoned 
and  powerful  advocacy  gave  an  impetus  and  a  ral- 
lying point  to  the  movement  which  were  to  prove 
of  the  greatest  value  in  the  future  growth  not  only 
of  Canada  but  of  the  whole  British  Empire. 


CHAPTER m 


THE  DNION  ERA 

The  struggle  for  self-government  seemed  to  have 
ended  in  deadlock  and  chaos.  Yet  under  the 
wreckage  new  lines  of  constructive  effort  were 
formmg.  The  rebellion  had  at  least  proved  that 
the  old  order  was  doomed.  For  half  a  century  the 
attempt  had  been  made  to  govern  the  Canadas  as 
separate  provinces  and  with  the  half  measure  of 
freedom  involved  in  represe.itative  government. 
For  die  next  quarter  of  a  century  the  experiment 
of  responsible  government  together  with  union  of 
the  two  provinces  was  to  be  given  its  trial. 

The  union  of  the  two  provinces  was  the  phase  of 
Durham's  policy  which  met  fullest  acceptance  in 
England.  It  was  not  possible,  in  the  view  of  the 
Bntish  Ministry,  to  take  away  permanently  from 
the  people  of  Lower  Canada  the  measure  of  self- 
»overrment  involved  in  permitting  them  to  choose 
then-  representatives  in  a  Hou&.  of  Assembly     It 


'■ ;      'I 


11    hi\ 


14. 


M 


THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 


'(1 


WM  rqually  imposaible,  they  conaidrred,  to  permit 
m  French-Canadian  majority  ever  again  to  bring 
all  government  to  a  standstill.  The  only  solution 
of  the  problem  was  to  unite  the  two  provinces  and 
thus  swamp  the  French  Canadians  by  an  English 
majority.  Lower  Canada,  Durham  had  insisted, 
must  be  made  "an  English  province."  Sooner  or 
later  the  French  Canadians  must  lose  their  sepa- 
rate nationality;  and  it  was,  he  contended,  the 
part  of  statesmanship  to  make  it  sooner.  Union, 
moreover,  would  make  possible  a  common  finan- 
cial policy  and  an  energetic  development  of  the 
resources  of  both  provinces. 

This  was  the  first  task  set  Durham's  successor, 
Charles  Poulett  Thomson:  better  known  as  Lord 
Sydenham.  Like  Durham  he  was  a  man  of  out- 
standing capacity.  The  British  Government  had 
learned  at  last  to  send  men  of  the  caliber  the  emer- 
gency demanded.  Like  Durham  he  was  a  wealthy 
Radical  politician,  but  there  the  resemblance  ended. 
Where  Durham  played  the  dictator,  Sydenham  pre- 
ferred to  intrigue  and  to  manage  men,  to  win  them 
by  his  adroitness  and  to  convince  them  by  his  en- 
ergy and  his  business  knowledge.  He  was  well  fit- 
ted for  the  transition  tasks  before  him,  though  too 
masterful  to  fill  the  r61e  of  ornamental  monarch 


THE  UNION  ERA  fff 

which  the  sdvocatei  of  responsible  guvenunent  had 
ost  foi  .ne  Governor. 

Sydenham  reached  Canada  in  October,  1830. 
With  the  assistance  of  James  Stuart,  now  a  baronet 
and  Chief  Justice  of  Lower  Canada,  he  drafted  a 
union  measure.  In  Lower  Canada  the  Assembly 
had  been  suspended,  and  the  Special  Council  ap- 
pointed  in  iU  stead  accepted  the  bill  without 
serious  demur.  More  difficulty  was  found  in  Up- 
per  Canada,  where  the  Family  Compact,  still  en- 
trenched in  the  Legislative  Council,  feared  the  risk 
to  their  own  position  that  union  would  bring  and 
shrank  from  the  task  of  assimilating  half  a  million 
disaffected  French  Canar*"  is.  But  with  the  sup- 
port  of  the  Reformers  and  of  the  more  moderate 
among  the  Family  Compact  party,  Sydenham  forced 
his  measure  through.  A  confirming  bill  passed 
the  British  Parliament;  and  on  February  10,  1841, 
the  Union  of  Canada  was  proclaimed. 

The  Act  provided  for  the  union  of  the  two 
provinces,  under  a  Governor,  an  appointed  Legis- 
lative Council,  and  an  elect,  ve  Assembly.  In  the 
Assembly  each  section  of  the  new  province  was  to 
receive  equal  represenUtion,  though  the  popula- 
tion of  Lower  Canada  still  greatly  exceeded  that 
of  Upper  Canada.    The  Assembly  was  to  have  full 


M 


^'    il^ 


!; 

H 


98 


THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 


control  of  all  revenues,  and  in  return  a  perma- 
nent civil  list  was  granted.  Either  English  or 
French  could  be  used  in  debate,  but  all  parlia- 
mentary journals  and  papers  were  to  be  printed 
in  English  only. ' 

In  June,  1841,  the  first  Parliament  of  united 
Canada  met  at  Kingston,  which  as  the  most  cen- 
tral point  had  been  chosen  as  the  new  capital.  Un- 
der Sydenham's  shrewd  and  energetic  leadership  a 
business  programme  of  long-delayed  reforms  was 
put  through.  A  large  loan,  guaranteed  by  the  Brit- 
ish Government,  made  possible  extensive  provision 
for  building  roads,  bridges,  and  canals  around  the 
rapids  in  the  St.  Lawrence.  Municipal  institu- 
tions were  set  up,  and  reforms  were  effected  in  the 
provincial  administration. 

Lord  John  Russell  in  England  and  Sydenham 
in  Canada  were  anxious  to  keep  the  question  of 
responsible  government  in  the  background.  For 
the  first  busy  months  they  succeeded,  but  the  new 
Parliament  contained  men  quite  as  strong  willed 
as  either  and  of  quite  other  views.    Before  the 


*  From  1841  to  1867  the  whole  province  was  legally  known  as  the 
"  Province  of  Canada.  **  Yet  a  measure  of  administrative  separation 
between  the  old  sections  remained,  and  the  terms  "Canada  East" 
and  "Canada  West"  received  official  sanction.  The  older  terms, 
"  Lower  Canada  "  and  "  Upper  Canada. "  lingered  on  in  popular  uaag*. 


THE  UNION  ERA  m 

first  session  had  begun,  Baldwin  and  the  new 
French-Canadian  leader.  La  Fontaine,  had  raised 
the  issue  and  begun  a  new  struggle  in  which  their 
single-minded  devotion  and  unflinching  courage 
were  to  attain  a  complete  success. 

Responsible  government  was  in  1841  only  a 
phrase,  a  watchword.  Its  full  implications  be- 
came clear  only  after  many  years.  It  meant  three 
things:  cabinet  government,  self-government,  and 
party  government.  It  meant  that  the  government 
of  the  country  should  be  carried  on  by  a  Cabinet 
or  Executive  Council,  all  members  of  Parliament, 
all  belonging  to  the  party  which  had  the  majority 
in  the  Assembly,  and  under  the  leadership  of  a 
Prime  Minister,  the  working  head  of  the  Gov- 
ernment. The  nominal  head.  Governor  or  King, 
could  act  only  on  the  advice  of  his  ministers,  who 
alone  were  held  responsible  to  Parliament  for  the 
course  of  the  Government.  It  meant,  further,  na- 
tional self-government.  The  Governor  could  not 
serve  two  masters.  If  he  must  take  the  advice 
of  his  ministers  in  Canada,  he  could  not  take  the 
possibly  conflicting  advice  of  ministers  in  London. 
The  people  of  Canada  would  be  the  ultimate  court 
of  appeal.  And  finally,  responsible  government 
meant  party  government.     The  cabinet  system 


i 


Mil 


100  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

presupposed  a  definite  and  united  majority  behind 
the  Government.  It  was  the  business  of  the  par- 
ty system  to  provide  that  majority,  to  insure  re- 
aponsible  and  steady  action,  and  at  the  same  time 
responsible  criticism  from  Her  Majesty's  loyal  Op- 
position. Baldwin  saw  this  clearly  in  1841,  but  it 
took  hard  fighting  throughout  the  forties  to  bring 
all  his  fellow  countrymen  to  see  likewise  and  to 
induce  the  English  Government  to  resign  itself  to 
the  prospect. 

Sydenham  fought  against  responsible  govern- 
ment but  advanced  it  against  his  will.  The  only 
sense  in  which  he,  like  Russell,  was  prepared  to 
concede  such  liberty  was  that  the  Governor  should 
choose  his  advisers  as  far  as  possible  from  men 
having  the  confidence  of  the  Assembly.  They  were 
to  be  his  advisers  only,  in  fact  as  well  as  form. 
The  Governor  was  still  to  govern,  was  to  be  Prime 
Minister  and  Governor  in  one.  When  Baldwin, 
who  had  been  given  a  seat  in  the  Executive  Coun- 
cil, demanded  in  1841  that  this  body  should  be 
reconstructed  in  such  a  way  as  to  include  some 
French-Canadian  members  and  to  exclude  the 
Family  Compact  men,  Sydenham  flatly  refused. 
Baldwin  then  resigned  and  went  into  opposition, 
but  Sydenham  unwillingly  played  into  his  hand. 


m 


i.^ 


1  T 


THE  ST.  LAWRENCE  REGION 

AND 

THE  MARITIME  PROVINCES 


,I77S 

13 


n<nu  i:<i,4wxaao 


W        Mo  MMft 


nl 


.  h 


Ill  MA 


Clalnnd  by  Uw  UnIM ) 
CWIIM4  by  OraM  ■WM 
Final  (Mlmlfiation 
Award  of  On  Kinf  of  ttt 
NottMffantfi  ( not  mcop 
by  U.S.) 


By  cl 

the  ti 

tion  I 

gave  I 

minist 

formii 

Befon 

Sydeni 

at  the 

faction 

accept 

advisei 

of  the  1 

his  woi 

ber  evt 

died  fro 

It  fell 

Sydenhi 

Bagot,  I 

plomacj 

were  to 

Bagot  C 

treaty  w 

the  bom 

injunctio 

Stanley, 


"1 


THE  UNION  ERA  ,0, 

By  chocing  hi.  council  «.lely  f„,„.  members  of 
the  two  Houses,  he  established  a  definite  connec- 
tion between  Executive  and  Assembly  and  thus 
gave  an  opportunity  for  the  discussion  of  the  ad- 
ministraUon  of  policy  in  the  House  and  for  the 
fonning  of  government  and  opposition  parties. 
Brfore  the  first  se«,ion  closed,  the  majority  which 
Sydenham  had  built  up  by  acting  as  a  party  leader 
at  the  very  time  he  was  deriding  parties  as  mere 
factions,  crumbled  away,  and  he  was  forced  to 
aocept  resolutions  insisUng  that  the  Governor's 
adv^ers  must  be  men  "possessed  of  the  confidence 
of  the  representaUves  of  the  people."    Fate  ended 
h«.  work  at  Its  height.    Riding  home  one  Septet 
b«  evenmg.  he  was  thwwn  f«,m  his  ho«e  and 
died  from  the  injuries  before  the  month  was  out. 

Itfell  to  theToiy  Government  ofPeeltochoose 
Sydenham  s  successor.    They  named  Sir  Charles 
Bagot.  already  distinguished  for  his  career  in  di- 
plomacy and  known  for  his  hand  in  matters  which 
were  to  interest  the  greater  Canada,  the  Rush- 
Bagot  Convention  with  the  United  States  and  the 
treaty  with  Russia  which  fixed,  only  to„  vaguely, 
the  boundaries  of  Alaska.     He  was  under  strict 
injunctions   from   the   Colonial   Secretary.   Lord 
Stanley,  to  continue  Sydenham's  policy  and  to 


IM 


THE  CANADIAN  DOBONION 


make  no  further  concession  to  the  demands  for 
responsible  government  or  party  control.  Yet  this 
Tory  nominee  of  a  Tory  Cabinet,  in  his  brief  term 
of  office,  insured  a  great  advance  along  this  very 
path  toward  freedom.  His  easy-going  temper  pre- 
disposed  him  to  play  the  part  of  constitutional 
monarch  rather  than  of  Prime  Minister,  and  in  any 
case  he  faced  a  majority  in  the  Assembly  resolute 
in  its  determination. 

The  policy  of  swamping  French  influence  had 
already  proved  a  failure.  Sydenham  had  given  it 
a  full  trial.  He  had  done  his  best,  or  his  worst, 
by  unscrupulous  manipulation,  to  keep  the  French 
Canadians  from  gaining  their  fair  quota  of  the  mem- 
bers in  the  Union  Assembly.  Those  who  were 
elected  he  ignored.  "  They  have  forgotten  nothing 
and  learnt  nothing  by  the  Rebellion, "  he  declared, 
"and  are  more  unfit  for  representative  government 
than  they  were  in  1791."  This  was  far  from  a  true 
reading  of  the  situation.  The  Fiench  stood  aloof, 
it  is  true,  a  compact  and  sullen  group,  angered  by 
the  undisguised  policy  of  Anglicization  that  faced 
them  and  by  Sydenham's  unscrupulous  tactics. 
But  they  had  learned  restraint  and  had  found 
leaders  and  allies  of  the  kind  most  needed.  Papin- 
eau's  place  —  for  the  great  tribune  was  now  in 


THE  UNION  ERA  los 

exile  in  Paria,  consorting  with  the  republican*  and 
•odaliat*  who  were  to  bring  about  the  Revolution 
of  1848  —  had  been  taken  by  one  of  his  former 
lieutenanta.    Louis  Hippolyte  La  Fontaine  stiU 
stands  out  as  one  of  the  two  or  three  greatest  Cana- 
dians of  French  descent,  a  man  of  massive  intellect, 
of  unquestioned  integrity,  and  of  firm  but  moder- 
ate temper.     With  Baldwin  he  came  to  form  a 
close  and  lifelong  friendship.    The  Reformers  of 
Canada  West,  as  Upper  Canada  was  now  called, 
formed  a  working  alliance  with  La  Fontaine  which 
gave  them  a  sweeping  majority  in  the  Assembly. 
Bagot  bowed  to  the  ineviUble  and  called  La  Fon- 
taine and  Baldwin  to  his  Council.    Ill  health  made 
it  impossible  for  him  to  take  much  part  in  the 
government,  and  the  Council  was  far  on  the  way 
to  obtaining  the  unity  and  the  independence  of  a 
true  Cabinet  when  Bagot's  death  in  1843  brought 
a  new  turn  in  affairs. 

The  British  Ministers  had  seen  with  growing 
uneasiness  Bagot's  concessions.  His  successor.  Sir 
Charles  Metcalfe,  a  man  of  honest  and  kindly  ways 
but  accustomed  to  governing  oriental  peoples,  de- 
termined to  make  a  stand  against  the  pretensions 
of  the  Reformers.  In  this  attitude  he  was  strongly 
backed  both  by  Stanley  and  by  his  successor,  that 


1     1 


J! 


104  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

brilliant  young  Toiy,  William  Ewart  GUdatone. 
Metcalfe  intiited  once  more  that  the  Governor 
muit  govern.  While  the  members  of  the  Council, 
a*  individuals,  might  give  him  advice,  it  wa«  for 
him  to  decide  whether  or  not  to  take  it.  The  in- 
evitable clash  with  his  Ministers  came  in  the 
autumn  of  184S  over  a  question  of  patronage. 
They  resigned,  and  after  months  of  effort  Metcalfe 
patched  up  a  Ministry  with  W.  H.  Draper  as  the 
leading  member.  In  an  election  in  which  Metcalfe 
himself  took  the  platform  and  in  which  once  more 
British  connection  was  said  to  be  at  stake,  the  Min- 
istry obtained  a  narrow  majority.  But  opinion  soon 
turned,  and  when  Metcalfe,  the  third  Governor  in 
four  years  to  whom  Canada  had  proved  fatal,  went 
home  to  die,  he  knew  that  bis  stand  had  been  in 
vain.  The  Ministry,  after  a  precarious  life  of  three 
years,  went  to  the  country  only  to  be  beaten  by 
an  overwhelming  majority  in  both  East  and  West. 
When,  in  1848,  Baldwin  and  La  Fontaine  were 
called  to  office  under  the  new  Governor  General, 
Lord  Elgin,  the  fight  was  won.  Many  years  were 
to  pass  before  the  full  implications  of  responsible 
government  were  worked  out,  Lut  henceforth  even 
the  straitest  Tory  conceded  the  principle.  Respon- 
sible government  had  ceased  to  be  a  party  cry  and 


THE  UNION  EBA  los 

h»d  become  the  common  heritage  of  all  Canadiani. 
Lord  Elgin,  who  was  Durham's  son-in-law,  waa 
a  man  well  able  to  bear  the  mantle  of  his  predeces- 
sors.  Yet  he  realized  that  the  day  had  passed  when 
Governors  could  govern  and  was  content  rather  to 
advise  his  advisers,  to  wield  the  personal  influ- 
ence that  his  experience  and  sagacity  warranted. 
Hitherto  the  stages  in  Canadian  history  had  been 
recorded  by  the  term  of  office  of  the  Governors; 
henceforth  it  was  to  be  the  tenure  of  Cabinets 
which  counted.    Elgin  ceased  even  to  attend  the 
Council,  and  after  hu  time  the  Governor  became 
more  and  more  the  consUtutional  monarch,  busied 
in  laying  comer  stones  and  listening  to  tiresome 
official  addresses.    In  emergencies,  and  especially 
in  the  gap  or  interregnum  between  Ministries,  the 
personaUty  of  the  Governor  might  count,  but  as  a 
rule  this  power  remained  latent.    Yet  in  two  turn- 
ing points  in  Canadian  history,  both  of  which  had 
to  do  with  the  relations  of  Canada  to  thj  United 
States,  Elgin  was  to  play  an  important  part:  the 
Annexation  Movement  of  1849  and  the  Reciprocity 
Treaty  of  1854. 

In  the  struggle  for  responsible  government, 
loyalty  to  the  British  Crown,  loyalty  of  x  superior 
and  exclusive  brand,  had  been  the  creed  and  the 


IM  THE  CANADIAN  DOBONION 

WM  cry  of  the  Tory  party.  Yet  in  1840  men  mw 
the  hot-heads  of  this  group  in  Montreal  stoning 
a  British  Governor  General  and  setting  fire  to  the 
Parliament  Buildings,  while  a  few  months  later 
their  elders  issued  a  manifesto  urging  the  annexa- 
tion of  Canada  to  the  United  States.  Why  this 
sudden  shift?  Simply  because  the  old  colonial 
system  they  had  known  and  supported  had  come 
to  an  end.  The  Empire  had  been  taken  to  mean 
racial  ascendancy  and  trade  profit.  Now  both  the 
political  and  the  economic  pillars  were  crumbling, 
and  the  Empire  appeared  to  have  no  further  excuse 
for  existence. 

In  the  past  British  connection  had  meant  to 
many  of  the  English  minority  in  Lower  Canada  a 
means  of  redressing  the  political  balance,  of  retain- 
ing power  in  face  of  a  body  of  French-speaking 
citizens  outnumbering  them  three  or  four  to  one. 
Now  that  support  had  been  withdrawn.  Britain 
had  consented,  unwillingly,  to  the  setting  up  of 
respo'isible  government  and  the  calling  to  oflBce  of 
men  who  a  dozen  years  before  had  been  in  arms 
against  the  Queen  or  fleeing  from  the  province. 
This  was  gall  and  wormwood  to  the  English.  But 
when  the  Ministry  introduced,  and  the  Assembly 
passed,  the  Rebellion  Losses  Bill  for  compensating 


•raE  UNION  ERA  ,^ 

«  to  make  it  doJw     ^      ""  ""**  •«  '''•'^ 

«e.i.«d  blood  couij^ri'^r?""'^' 

w«  pelted  with  «tten  egg,  wre„  he  7"™* 

the  Hou^e  to  ,ig„  the  bZ„d  ♦.  k  ,T  '^°'"'  *^ 
Parliament  had  «et  ^  ,1  ^"r  "'""' 
had  been  transferred  Z^  I     '  "'""  **"  '*P''«' 

=s:re;;L-br.r:i7""'-- 

abandonedtoHomeiutarSi  Xr  ^^^^ 
turned  to  the  south   f„  fi,      ^,"° '*'"«'•    They 

of  the  race  would  no^ve  thl  ''^"  '"'""'^ 
^hare  in  dominance  Iw^u  """**"'"  °'  ' 
could  and  would  a',  ^^^  ^*  ^°'"«'"  '"""«'» 
they  we«  ^te^^i:^?-''-5fclsugge,ted. 

:--:^-:i.^-ro;r 

economic  foundaUons,  too  we«.  n„  ' 

■».  wjo,  were  passmg  away,  and 


108  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

with  them  !he  profits  of  the  Montreal  merchants, 
who  formed  the  backbone  of  the  annexation  move- 
ment. It  has  been  seen  that  under  this  system 
Great  Britain  had  aimed  at  setting  up  a  self-con- 
tained empire,  with  a  monopoly  of  the  markets  of 
the  colonies.  Now  for  her  own  sake  she  was  sweep- 
ing away  the  tarifiF  and  shipping  monopoly  which 
had  been  built  up  through  more  than  two  cen- 
turies. The  logic  of  Adam  Smith,  the  experiments 
of  Huskisson,  the  demands  of  manufacturers  for 
cheap  food  and  raw  materials,  the  passionate 
campaigns  of  Cobden  and  Bright,  and  the  rains 
that  brought  the  Irish  famine,  at  last  had  their 
effect.  In  1846  Peel  himself  undertook  the  repeal 
of  the  Com  Laws.  To  Lower  Canada  this  was  a 
crushing  blow.  Until  of  late  the  preference  given 
in  the  British  market  on  colonial  goods  in  return 
for  the  control  of  colonial  trade  had  been  of  little 
value;  but  in  1843  the  duties  on  Canadian  wheat 
and  flour  had  been  greatly  lowered,  resulting  in  a 
preference  over  foreign  grain  reckoned  at  eighteen 
cents  a  bus'iel.  WhUe  in  appearance  an  extension 
of  the  old  system  of  preference  and  protection,  in 
reaUty  this  was  a  step  toward  its  abandonment. 
For  it  was  understood  that  American  grain,  im- 
ported into  Canada  at  a  low  duty,  whether  shipped 


THE  UNION  ERA  ,09 

direct orgroundinto flour,  would  be admittedatthe 
jaineW^tes.    Tie  Act.  by  opemng  a  backdoor 
to  M  States  wheat,  foreshadowed  the  triumph 
of  the  cheap  food  agitators  in  England.     But  the 
"-chants,  the  millers,  and  the  forwa„le«  of  Mon- 
treal could  not  believe  this.    The  canal  system  was 
mshed  through,  large  flour  mills  were  built   ILd 
hea^vestments  of  cpital  were  made.    Then 
m  1846  «me  the  announcement  that  the  artificial 
^«  of  th.  brief  prosperity  had  vanished.    Lord 
Eigm  summed  up  the  results  in  a  dispatch  in  184Q- 
Property  in  most  of  the  Canadian  towns,  and 
more  especially  in  the  capital,  has  fallen  fifty  per 

f^r  7  r  "*'"■'' *''''"*"''-y--  Three- 
fourths  of  thecommer^ial  men  are  bankrupt,  owing 
t»  freetrader  A  large  p^portion  of  the  exportabfe 
P~duce  of  Canada  is  obliged  to  seek  a  m^ket  in 
the  U„.t^  States.  It  pays  a  duty  of  twenty  per 
cent  on  the  frontier.  How  long  can  such  a  sta^ 
of  things  endure?" 

In  October.  1849,  the  leadmg  men  of  Montreal 
issued  a  mamfesto  demanding  annexation  to  the 
UmtedStat  A  future  Prime  Mimster  of  Canada, 
J.  J.  C.  Abbott,  four  future  Cabinet  Minister., 
John  Rose.  Luther  Holton.  D.  L.  Macphe.^„. 
•nd  A.  A.  Donon,  and  the  commercial  leaden, 


110  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

of  Montreal,  the  MoLmiu,  Redpaths,  Torrances, 
and  Workmans,  were  among  the  signers.    Besides 
Dorion,  a  few  French  Canadians  of  the  Rouge  or 
extreme  Radical  party  joined  in.    The  movement 
found  supporters  in  the  Eastern  Townships,  nota- 
bly in  A.  T.  Gait,  a  financier  and  railroad  builder 
of  distinction,  and  here  and  there  in  Canada  West. 
Yet  the  great  body  of  opinion  was  unmistakably 
against  it.    Baldwin  and  La  Fontaine  opposed  it 
with  unswerving  energy,  the  Catholic  Church  in 
Canada  East  denoimced  it,  and  the  rank  and  file 
of  both  parties  in  Canada  West  gave  it  short  shrift 
Elgin  came  out  actively  in  opposition  and  aided 
in  negotiating  the  Reciprocity  Treaty  with  the 
United  States  which  met  the  economic  need.   Mon- 
treal found  itself  isolated,  and  even  there  the  re- 
vival of  trade  and  the  cooling  of  passions  turned 
men's  thoughts  into  other  channels.     Soon  the 
movement  was  but  a  memory,  chiefly  serviceable 
to  political  opponents  for  taunting  some  signer  of 
the  manifesto  whenever  he  later  made  parade  of 
his  loyalty.    It  had  a  more  unfortunate  effect, 
however,  in  leading  public  opinion  in  the  United 
States  to  the  belief  for  many  years  that  a  strong 
annexationist  sentiment  existed  in  Canada.    Never 
again  did  annexation  receive  any  notable  measure 


THE  UNION  ERA  m 

of  popular  support.  A  national  spirit  was  slowly 
gaining  ground,  and  men  were  eventually  to  see 
that  the  alternative  to  looking  to  London  for  sal- 
vation was  not  looking  to  Washington  but  looking 
to  themselves. 


In  the  provinces  by  the  sea  the  struggle  for  re- 
sponsible government  was  won  at  much  the  same 
time  as  in  Canada.    The  smaUer  field  within  which 
the  contest  was  waged  gave  it  a  bitter  personal 
touch;  but  racial  hostility  did  not  enter  in,  and  the 
British  Government  proved  less  obdurate  than  in 
the  western  conflicts.    In  both  Nova  Scotia  and 
New  Brunswick  little  oligarchies  had  become  en- 
trenched.    The  Government  was  unprogrrssive, 
and  fees  and  salaries  were  high.     The  Anglican 
Church  had  received  privileges  galling  to  other 
denominations   which  surpassed  it  in   numbers. 
The  "powers  that  were"  found  a  shrewd  defender 
in  Haliburton,  who  tried  to  teach  his  fellow  Blue- 
noses  through  the  homely  wit  of  "Sam  Slick"  that 
they  should  leave  governing  to  those  who  had  the 
training,  the  capacity,  and  the  leisure  it  required. 
In  Prince  Edward  Island  the  land  question  still 
overshadowed  all  others.    Every  proposal  for  its 
settlement  was  rejected  by  the  influence  of  the 


lie  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

absentee  landlords  in  England,  and  the  agitation 
went  wearily  on. 

In  Nova  Scotia  the  outstanding  figure  in  the 
ranks  of  reform  was  Joseph  Howe.  The  son  of 
a  Loyalist  settler,  Howe  early  took  to  his  father's 
work  of  journalism.  At  first  his  sympathies  were 
with  the  governing  powers,  but  a  controversy  with 
a  brother  editor,  Jotham  Blanchard,  a  New  Hamp- 
shire man  who  found  radical  backing  among  the 
Scots  of  Pictou,  gave  him  new  lighl  and  he  soon 
threw  his  whole  powers  into  the  struggle  on  the 
popular  side.  Howe  was  a  man  lavishly  gifted, 
one  of  the  most  effective  orators  America  has  pro- 
duced, fearing  no  man  and  no  task  however  great, 
filled  with  a  vitality,  a  humor,  a  broad  sympathy 
for  his  fellows  that  gave  him  the  blind  obedience 
of  thousands  of  followers  and  the  glowing  friend- 
ship of  countless  firesides.  There  are  still  old  men 
in  Nova  Scotia  whose  proudest  memory  is  that 
they  once  held  Howe's  horse  or  ran  on  an  errand 
for  a  look  from  his  kingly  eye. 

Howe  took  up  the  fight  in  earnest  in  18S5.  The 
westam  demand  for  responsible  government  point- 
ed the  way,  and  Howe  became,  with  Baldwin,  its 
mosttrenchantadvocate.  Inspiteofthedetermined 
opposition  of  the  sturdy  old  soldier  Governor,  Sir 


THE  UNION  ERA  ns 

Ck)lm  CanipbeU,and  of  his  successor.Lord  Falkland, 
who  aped  Sydenham  and  whom  Howe  threatened  to 
"hire  a  black  man  to  horse-wUp,"  the  reformers 
won.  In  1848  the  first  responsible  Cabinet  in  Nova 
Scotia  came  to  power. 

In  New  Brunswick  the  transition  to  responsible 
government  came  gradually  and  without  dramatic 
incidents  or  brilliant  figures  on  either  side.  Lemuel 
Wilmot,  and  later  Charles  Fisher,  led  the  reform 
ranks,  gradually  securing  for  the  Assembly  control 
of  all  revenues,  abolishing  religious  inequalities, 
and  effecting  some  reform  in  the  Fsecutive  Coun- 
cil, until  at  last  in  1855  the  crowning  demand  was 
tardily  conceded. 


From  the  Great  Lakes  to  the  Atlantic  the  polit- 
ical fight  was  won,  and  men  turned  with  relief  to 
the  tasks  which  strife  and  faction  had  hindered. 
Self-covemment  meant  progressive  government. 
With  organized  Cabinets  coordinating  and  con- 
trolling their  policy  the  provinces  went  ahead 
much  faster  than  when  Governor  and  Assembly 
stood  at  daggers  drawn.  The  forties  and  especially 
the  fifties  were  years  of  rapid  and  sound  develop- 
ment in  all  the  provinces,  and  especially  in  Canada 
West.    Settlers  poured  in,  the  scattered  clearings 


114  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

widened  until  one  joined  the  next,  and  pioneer 
hardships  gave  way  to  substantial,  if  crude,  pros- 
perity. Education,  notably  under  the  vigorous 
leadership  of  Egerton  Ryerson  in  Canada  West, 
received  more  adequate  attention.  Banks  grew 
and  with  them  all  commercial  facilities  increased. 
The  distinctive  feature  of  this  period  of  Cana- 
dian development,  however,  was  the  growth  of 
canals  and  railroads.  The  forties  were  the  time 
of  canal  building  and  rebuilding  all  along  the  lakes 
and  the  St.  Lawrence  to  salt  water.  Canada  spent 
millions  on  what  were  wonderful  works  for  their 
day,  in  the  hope  that  the  St.  Lawrence  would  be- 
come the  channel  for  the  trade  of  all  the  growing 
western  States  bordering  on  the  Great  Lakes. 
Scarcely  were  these  waterway  improvements  com- 
pleted when  it  was  realized  they  had  been  made 
largely  in  vain.  The  railway  had  come  and  was 
outrivaling  the  canal.  If  Canadian  ports  and 
channels  were  even  to  bold  their  own,  they  must 
take  heed  of  the  enterprise  of  all  the  cities  along 
the  Atlantic  coast  of  the  United  States,  which  were 
promoting  railroads  to  the  interior  in  a  vigorous  ri- 
valry for  the  trade  of  the  Golden  West.  Here  was 
a  challenge  which  must  be  taken  up.  The  fifties 
became  the  first  great  railway  era  of  Canada.    In 


THE  UNION  ERA 

IMO  there  wet*  «.,k,    •_.      .  "* 

two  thousand.  Nearlv -I^T^  "*  ''*"'  """^ 

from  the  Detroit  border  to  iTvir^r'  "''"'  '- 
Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  a^d  WW  ht  .""?  °"  '''« 
tl..t  eastern  terminus  in  th^^^ ^1  -"^ 'I 
connecting  with  the  railways  ofXw  1'^^'*'*°' 
■noes,  was  nevertheless  aTt^a^'i^.^f'^"" 
«««1  in  the  world  operate  .  !.  ''"  '""'^t 

TK»      I  operating  under  single  con»,v.i 

tivff::"7irc!r;'r^-"--^^^^ 
bu^^esspoiitrwCrtiSrir*-- 

f  on.  and  a  closer  touch  ^atT  '^"  """^P" 
11«e  general  substituti:;  oTstat  f""*^":  '"''''■ 
Atlantic  during  this  period  aiS^J";  """  f"  ""^ 
mg  the  isolation  of  what  had  K  k^"'  "*  '*'*"- 
inces  and  i„  K„- J!    .T  ^**°  •'^^''^oods  prov- 

oto  closer  relation 


with 


f  the  world. 


tested  itself,    ifth"   "Z  T"*"?  '"^^^  '^'^^ 

W-  of  ^s^^^ZZl^^'^^;l;onoJ^  the 

w«  discouraged  and  wT  ,        ^'"'^  States 

^  and  was  remarkably  insignifiawt. 


118  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

Official  policy  and  the  memories  of  178S  and  1818 
alike  built  up  a  wall  along  the  southern  border. 
The  spirit  of  Downing  Street  was  shown  in  the  in- 
strucUons  given  to  Lord  Bathurst.  immediately 
after  the  close  of  the  war,  to  leave  the  territory  be- 
tween Montreal  and  Lake  Champlain  in  a  state  of 
nature,  making  no  further  grants  of  land  and  letting 
the  few  roads  which  had  been  begun  fall  into  decay : 
thus  a  barrier  of  forest  wilderness  would  ward  off 
repubUcan  contagion.  This  Chinese  policy  of  put- 
ting up  a  wall  of  separation  proved  impossible  to 
carry  through,  but  in  less  extreme  ways  this  atUtude 
of  aloofness  marked  the  course  of  the  Government 
all  through  the  days  of  oversea  authority. 

The  friction  aroused  by  repeated  boundary  dis- 
putes prevented  friendly  relations  between  Canada 
and  the  United  States.  With  unconscious  irony 
the  framers  of  the  Peace  of  1783  had  prefaced  their 
long  outUne  of  the  boundaries  of  the  United  SUtes 
by  expressing  their  intention  "that  all  disputes 
wUch  might  arise  in  future  on  the  subject  of  the 
boundaries  of  the  said  United  States  may  be  pre- 
vented." So  vague,  however,  were  the  terms  of 
the  treaty  and  so  untrustworthy  were  the  maps  of 
the  day  that  ultimately  almost  every  clause  in  the 
boundary  section  gave  rise  to  dispute. 


raE  UNION  ERA  ,„ 

and  New  England  was  to  ZT  ^f*  ,^™°""'=k 
r^.   n.       "»'"™  was  to  be  formed  by  the  St 

;^....noH..t:T.t:::rs::dt 

1788^  The  Bnt«h  identified  it  with  the  Schoodic 

S^ot'T  ""•  ""^  Magaguadavic.    ^bt 
tration  in  1798  upheld  the  British  !n  th.      T 

Twl  o  ttT'T  "  ''•'  '^^"'^^  question^ 
louowed.  Asimilar  commission  in  1817settled  f  h- 
•Wute  ^  to  the  islands  in  Passamaq^  Bay 

^difficult,  because  at  once  ml  ambi^7„s 
m  tenns  and  more  vitally  important,  was  the  d^ 
termination  of  the  boundary  in  the  n«t  sw 
westward  f«,m  the  St.  Cro^U,  the  St.  Wr^S'' 
^eBnU3hpo.itio„wasadifficultonetomainS. 
Bn.       ?r  °'  ^^^  '*"•««'«  ^*^  France.  GrT 
Bntam  had  tried  to  push  the  bounds  of  tie  nTw 

d«ins  that  would  hem  in  France  to  the  bar«t 
»tnp  along  the  south  shore  of  the  St   tT 
Now  that  .1.  1.  •  "=  "'  we  ^t.  Lawrence. 

Now  that  she  was  heir  to  the  territories  and  claims 


lit  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

of  France  and  had  lost  her  own  old  ooloniei,  it  wm 
aomewh«t  embarrassiiig,  but  for  diplomata  not 
impoHible,  to  have  to  urge  a  line  as  far  south  as 
the  urgent  needi  of  the  provinces  for  intercom- 
munication demanded.  The  letter  of  the  treaty 
was  impossible  to  interpret  with  certainty.  The 
phrase,  "the  Highlands  which  divide  those  rivers 
that  empty  themselves  into  the  river  St.  Lawrence 
from  those  which  fall  into  the  Atlantic  Ocean," 
meant  according  to  the  American  reading  a  water- 
shed which  was  a  marshy  plateau,  and  according 
to  the  British  version  a  range  of  hills  to  the  south 
which  involved  some  keen  hairsplitting  as  to  the 
rivers  they  divided.  The  intentions  of  the  parties 
to  the  original  treaty  were  probably  much  as  the 
Americans  contended.  From  the  standpoint  of 
neighborly  adjustment  and  the  relative  need  for 
the  land  in  question,  a  strong  case  in  equity  could 
be  made  out  for  the  provinces,  which  would  be  cut 
asunder  for  all  time  if  a  wedge  were  driven  north 
to  the  very  brink  of  the  St.  Lawrence. 

As  lumbermen  and  settlers  gathered  in  the 
border  area,  the  risk  of  conflict  became  acute, 
culminating  in  the  Aroostook  War  in  1838-S9, 
when  the  Legislatures  of  Maine  and  New  Bruns- 
wick backed  their  rival  lumberjacks  with  reckless 


riE  UNION  ERA  ii« 

jingoism.  Diplomacy  failed  repeatedly  to  obtain  a 
compromise  line.  Arbitration  was  tried  with  little 
better  success.as  the  United  States  refused  to  ai^pt 
the  award  of  the  King  of  the  Netherlands  in  1831. 
The  diplomats  tried  once  more,  and  in  1848  Daniel 
Webster,  the  United  Sutes  SecreUry  of  State,  and 
Lord  A«hburton,  the  British  Commissioner,  made  a 
compromise  by  which  some  five  thousand  miles  of 
the  area  in  dispute  were  assigned  to  Great  Britain 
and  seven  thousand  to  the  United  States.  The 
award  was  not  popular  on  either  side,  and  the  pub- 
lic seized  eagerly  on  stories  of  concealed  "  Red  Line  " 
maps,  stories  of  Yankee  smartness  or  of  British 
trickery.  Webster,  to  win  the  assent  of  Maine,  had 
exhibited  in  the  Senate  a  map  found  in  the  French 
Archives  and  very  damaging  to  the  American  claim. 
Later  it  appeared  that  the  British  Government  al- 
so had  found  a  map  equally  damaging  to  its  own 
claims.  The  nice  question  of  ethics  involved, 
whether  a  nation  should  bring  forward  evidence  that 
would  tell  against  itself,  ceased  to  have  more  than 
an  abstract  interest  when  it  was  demonstrated  that 
neither  map  could  be  considered  as  one  which  the 
original  negotiators  had  used  or  marked.  ■ 

•  See  The  PaU,  of  Emfirt,  by  Cwl  RiuaeU  Fuh  (io  Tlu  CkmMu 

cf  Awurtea). 


180  THE  CANADIAN  DOKONION 

The  boundary  from  the  St.  Lawnnce  weitward 
through  the  Great  Lakes  and  thence  to  the  Lake 
of  the  Woodi  had  been  laid  down  in  the  Treaty 
of  1783  in  the  uaual  vague  temu,  but  it  waa  deter- 
mined in  a  teriet  of  negotiation!  from  17M  to  184S 
with  lew  friction  and  heat  than  the  eaatem  line 
had  caused.    From  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  to  the 
Rockies  a  new  line,  the  forty-ninth  parallel,  was 
agreed  upon  in  1818.    Then,  as  the  Pacific  Ocean 
was  neared,  the  difficulties  once  more  increased. 
There  were  no  treaties  between  the  two  countries 
to  limit  claims  beyond  the  Rockies.    Discovery 
and  settlement,  and  the  rights  inherited  from  or 
admitted  by  the  Spaniards  to  the  south  and  by 
the  Russians  to  the  north,  were  the  grounds  put 
forward.     British  and  Canadian  fur  traders  had 
been  the  pioneers  in  overland  discovery,  but  early 
in  the   forties   thousands  of  American   settlers 
poured  into  the  Columbia  Valley  and  strength- 
ened the  practical  case  for  their  country.    "Fifty- 
four  forty  or  fight "  —  in  other  words,  the  calm  pro- 
posal to  claim  the  whole  coast  between  Mexico  and 
Alaska  —  became  the  popular  cry  in  the  United 
States;  but  in  face  of  the  firm  attitude  of  Great 
Britain  and  impending  hostilities  with  Mexico, 
more  moderate  counsels  ruled.    Great  Britain  held 


THE  UNION  ERA  m 

out  for  the  Columbia  River  m  the  dividing  line, 
•nd  the  United  SUtes  for  the  forty-ninth  pumUel 
throughout.  Finally,  in  1846.  the  latter  contention 
wai  accepted,  with  a  modification  to  leave  Vancou- 
ver Iiland  wholly  Britiah  territory.  A  poetacript 
to  thia  settlement  was  added  in  1872,  when  the 
German  Emperor  as  arbitrator  approved  the  Amer- 
ican claim  to  the  island  of  San  Juan  in  the  channel 
between  Vancouver  Island  and  the  mainland.' 

With  the  most  troublesome  boundary  questions 
out  of  the  way,  it  became  possible  to  discuss  calmly 
closer  trade  relations  between  the  Provinces  and 
the  United  States.  The  movement  for  reciprocal 
lowering  of  the  tariffs  which  hampered  trade  made 
rapid  headway  in  the  Provinces  in  the  late  forties 
and  early  fifties.  British  North  America  was  pass- 
ing  out  of  the  pioneer,  self-suflScient  stage,  and 
now  had  a  surplus  to  export  as  well  as  town-bred 
needs  to  be  supplied  by  imports.  The  spread  of 
settlement  and  the  building  of  canals  and  railways 
brought  closer  contact  with  the  people  to  the 
south.  The  loss  of  special  privileges  in  the  English 
market  made  the  United  States  market  more  de- 
sired.   In  official  circles  reciprocity  was  sought 

•StTitPalk^Emfm. 


18«  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

M  a  homeopathic  cure  for  the  desire  for  annexa- 
tion.  William  Hamilton  Merritt,  a  Niagara  border 
business  man  and  the  most  persistent  advocate  of 
closer  trade  relations,  met  little  difficulty  in  se- 
curing almost  unanimous  backing  in  Canada,  while 
the  Maritime  P^vinces  lent  their  support. 

It  was  more  difficult  to  win  over  the  United 
States.    There  the  people  showed  the  usual  in- 
difference of  a  big  and  prosperous  country  to  the 
needs  or  opportunities  of  a  small  and  backward 
neighbor.    The  divfaion  of  power  between  Presi- 
dent and  Congress  made  it  difficult  to  carry  any 
negotiation  through  to  success.     Yet  these  ob- 
stacles were  overcome.   The  depletion  of  the  fish- 
eries along  the  Atlantic  coast  of  the  United  SUtei. 
made  it  worth  while,  as  I.  D.  Andrews,  a  United 
States  consul  in  New  Brunswick,  urged  persist- 
ently, to  gain  access  to  the  richer  grounds  to  the 
north  and,  if  necessary,  to  offer  trade  concessions 
in  exchange.   At  Washington,  the  South  was  in  the 
saddle.     Its  sympathies  were  strongly  for  freer 
trade,  but  this  alone  would  not  have  counted 
had  not  the  advocates  of  reciprocity  convinced  the 
Democratic  leaders  of  the  bearing  of  their  policy 
on  the  then  absorbing  issue  of  slavery.    If  re- 
ciprocity were  not  arranged,  the  argument  ran, 


THE  UNION  ERA  m 

Minexation  would  be  sure  to  come  and  that  would 
mean  the  addition  to  the  Union  of  a  group  of  free- 
soil  States  which  would  definitely  tilt  the  balance 
against  slavery  for  all  time.    With  the  ground  thus 
prepared,  Lord  Elgin  succeeded  by  adroit  and 
capable  diplomacy  in  winning  over  the  leaders  of 
Congress  as  well  as  the  Executive  to  his  proposals. 
The  Reciprocity  Treaty  was  passed  by  the  Senate 
in  August.  1854,  and  by  the  Legislatures  of  the 
United  Kingdom,  Canada,  Prince  Edward  Island, 
New  Brunswick,  and  Nova  Scotia  in  the  next 
few  months,  and  of  Newfoundland  in  1855.    This 
treaty  provided  for  free  admission  into  each  coun- 
try of  practically  all  the  producte  of  the  farm, 
forest,  mine,  and  fishery,  threw  open  the  Atlantic 
fisheries,  and  gave  American  vessels  the  use  of  the 
St.  Lawrence  and  Canadian  vessels  the  use  of 
Lake  Michigan.    The  agreement  was  to  last  for 
ten  years  and  indefinitely  thereafter,  subject  to 
termination  on  one  year's  notice  by  either  party. 
To    both   countries   reciprocity   brought   un- 
doubted good.    Trade  doubled  and  trebled.    Each 
country  gained  by  free  access  to  the  nearest  sources 
of  supply.    The  same  goods  figured  largely  in  the 
traflSc  in  both  directions,  the  United  States  im- 
porting grain  and  flour  from  Canada  and  exporting 


1*4  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

it  to  the  MariUme  Provinces.    In  short  the  benefits 
which  had  come  to  the  United  States  from  free 
and  unfettered  trade  throughout  half  a  continent 
were  now  extended  to  practicaUy  a  whole  continent. 
Yet  criticism  of  the  new  economic  i^gime  was 
not  lacking.    The  growth  of  protectionist  feeling 
m  both  countries  after  1857  brought  about  inci- 
dents and  created  an  atmosphere  which  were  dan- 
gerous to  the  continuance  of  close  trade  relations 
In  ms  and  1859  the  Can«lian  Government  raised 
substanUally  the  duties  on  manufactured  goods  in 
order  to  meet  the  bills  for  its  lavish  railway  pol- 
icy.    This  increase  hit  American  manufacturers 
and  led  to  loud  complaints  that  the  spirit  of  the 
Reciprocity  Treaty  had  been  violated.    Alexander 
T.  Gait,  Canadian  Minister  of  Finance,  had  no 
difficulty  in  showing  that  the  tariff  increases  were 
the  only  feasible  sources  of  revenue,   that  the 
agreement  with  the  United  States  did  not  cover 
manufactures,  and  that  the  United  States  itself, 
faced  by  war  demands  and  no  longer  controlled 
by  free  trade  Southerners,  had  raised  duUes  still 
higher.     The  exports  of  the  United  States  to  the 
Provinces  in  the  reciprocity  period  were  greater, 
contrary  to  the  later  traditions,  than  the  imports. 
On  economic  grounds  the  case  for  the  continuance 


1 1     il 


THE  UNION  ERA  ygf 

of  the  reciprocity  agreement  was  strong,  and  prob- 
ably the  treaty  would  have  remained  in  force  in- 
definitely had  not  the  political  passions  roused  by 
the  Civil  War  made  sanity  tnd  neighborliness  in 
trade  difficult  to  maintain. 

When  the  Civil  War  broke  out.  the  sympathies 
of  Canadians  were  overwhelmingly  on  the  side  of 
the  North.  The  railway  and  freer  trade  had  been 
brmging  the  two  peoples  closer  together,  and  time 
was  healing  old  sores.  Slavery  was  held  to  be  the 
real  issue,  and  on  that  issue  there  were  scarcely 
two  opinions  in  the  British  Provinces. 

Yet  in  a  few  months  sympathy  had  given  way 
to  angry  and  suspicious  bickering,  and  the  possi- 
bility of  invasion  of  Canada  by  the  Northern  forces 
was  vigorously  debated.  This  sudden  shift  of  opin- 
ion and  the  danger  in  which  it  involved  the  prov- 
inces were  both  incidents  in  the  quarrel  which 
sprang  up  between  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain.  In  Britain  as  in  Canada,  opinion,  so  far 
as  It  found  open  expression,  was  at  first  not  un- 
friendly to  the  North.  Then  came  the  anger  of  the 
North  at  Great  Britain's  legitimate  and  necessary, 
though  perhaps  precipitate,  action  in  acknowledg- 
ing the  South  as  a  belligerent.     This  action  ran 


V  l| 


!«  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

counter  to  the  official  Northern  theory  that  th. 
revolt  of  the  Southern  States  was  a  local  riot,  of 
merely  domestic  concern,  and  was  held  to  fore- 
rfiadow  a  recogniUon  of  the  independence  of  the 
Confederacy.     The  angiy  taunts  were  soon  n- 
turned.    The  ruling  classes  in  Great  Britain  made 
the  discoveo'  that  the  war  was  a  struggle  between 
ch.vaht>us  gentlemen  and  mercenary  counterhop- 
pen,  and  cherished  the  hope  that  the  failure  of  the 
North  would  discredit,  the  worid  over,  the  de- 
mocracy which  was  making  uncomfortable  claims 
m  England  itself.     The  English  trading  classes 
resented  the  shortage  of  cotton  and  the  high  duties 
which  the  protecUonist  North  was  imposing   With 
the  defeat  of  the  Union  forces  at  Bull  Run  the 
prudent  hesitancy  of  aristocrat  and  merchant  in 
expressmg  their  views  disappeared.   The  responsi- 
ble statesmen  of  both  countries,  especially  Lincoln 
and  Lord  John  Russell,  refused  to  be  stampeded, 
but  unfortunately  the  leading  newspapers  served 
them  ill.    The  Times,  with  its  constant  sneers  and 
Its  still  more  irritating  patronizing  advice,  and  the 
New  York  Herald,  bragging  and  blustering  in  the 
frank  hope  of  forcing  a  war  with  Britain  and  France 
which  would  reunite  South  and  North  and  sub- 
ordinate the  slavery  issue,  did  more  than  any 


I      r 

n 


THE  UNION  EHA  1^7 

other  factors  to  bring  the  two  countries  to  the 
verge  of  war. 

In  Canada  the  tendency  in  some  quarters  to 
reflect  English  opinion,  the  disappointment  in 
others  that  the  aboliUon  of  slavery  was  not  ex- 
plicitly pledged  by  the  North,  and  above  all  re- 
sentment against  the  threats  of  the  Herald  and  iU 
followers,  soon  cooled  the  early  friendliness.  The 
leading  Canadian  newspaper,  for  many  years  a 
vigorous  opponent  of  slavery,  thus  summed  up 
the  situation  in  August,  1861  : 

The  insolent  bravado  of  the  Northern  press  towards 
Great  Britain  and  the  insulting  tone  assumed  toward 
these  Provinces  have  unquestionably  produced  a 
marked  change  iu  the  feelings  of  our  people.  When  the 
war  commenced,  there  was  only  one  feeling,  of  hearty 
sympathy  with  the  North,  but  now  it  is  very  differ- 
ent.  People  have  lost  sight  of  the  character  of  the 
struggle  in  the  exasperation  excited  by  the  injustice 
and  abuse  showered  upon  us  by  the  party  with  which 
we  sympathized.' 

The  Trent  affair  brought  matters  to  a  sobering 
climax.'  When  it  was  settled,  resentment  lingered, 
but  the  tension  was  never  again  so  acute.    Both  in 

*  Toronto  Olobe,  Aufnut  7,  1801. 

•  See  Abraham  Lincoln  and  Ike  Union,  by  Nathaniel  W  Steuheiuoii 
(in  Tlu  CkToniela  of  Amtria).  r-"^- 


I. 


lis  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

Great  Britain  and  in  Canada  the  normal  sym- 
pathy with  the  cause  of  the  Union  revived  as  the 
war  went  on.  In  England  tiie  classes  continued 
to  be  pro-Southern  in  sympathy,  but  the  masses, 
in  spite  ol  cotton  famines,  held  resolutely  to  their 
faith  in  the  cause  of  freedom.  After  Lincoln's 
emancipation  of  the  slaves,  the  view  of  the  English 
middle  classes  more  and  more  became  the  view  of 
the  nation.  In  Canada,  pro-Southern  sentiment 
was  strong  in  the  same  classes  and  particularly 
in  Montreal  and  Toronto,  where  there  were  to 
be  found  many  Southern  refugees,  some  of  whom 
made  a  poor  return  for  hospitality  by  endeavoring 
to  use  Canada  as  a  base  for  border  raids.  Yet  in 
the  smaller  towns  aad  in  the  country  sympathy 
was  decidedly  on  the  other  side,  particularly  after 
the  Herald  had  ceased  its  campaign  of  bluster 
and  after  lincoln's  proclamation  had  brought  the 
moral  issue  again  to  the  fore.  The  fact  that  a 
large  number  of  CasAdianti.  popularly  set  at  forty 
thousand,  enlisted  in  the  Northern  armies,  is  to  be 
explained  in  part  by  the  call  of  adventure  and  the 
lure  of  high  bounties,  but  it  must  also  be  taken  to 
reflect  the  sympathy  of  the  mass  of  the  people. 

In  the  United  States  resentment  was  slower  in 
passing.    While  the  war  was  on,  prudence  forbade 


THE  UNION  ERA 


1» 


any  overt  act.  When  it  was  over,  the  bill  for  the 
Alabama  raids  and  the  taunts  of  the  Timet  came 
in.  Great  Britain  paid  in  the  settlement  of  the  Ala- 
bama claims.'  Canada  suffered  by  the  abrogation 
of  the  Reciprocity  Treaty  at  the  first  possible  date, 
and  by  the  connivance  of  the  American  authorities 
in  the  Fenian  raids  of  1866  and  1870.  Yet  for 
Canada  the  outcome  was  by  no  means  ill.  If  the 
Civil  War  did  not  bring  forth  a  new  nation  in  the 
South,  it  helped  to  make  one  in  the  far  North. 
A  common  danger  drew  the  scattered  British 
Provinces  together  and  made  ready  the  way  for 
the  coming  Dominion  of  Canada. 

It  was  not  from  the  United  States  alone  that  an 
impetus  came  for  the  closer  union  of  the  British 
Provinces.  The  same  period  and  the  same  events 
ripened  opinion  in  the  United  Kingdom  in  favor  of 
some  practical  means  of  altering  a  colonial  relation- 
ship which  had  ceased  to  bring  profit  but  which  had 
not  ceased  to  be  a  burden  of  responsibility  and  risk. 

The  British  Empire  had  its  beginning  in  the  ini- 
tiative of  private  business  men,  not  in  any  con- 
scious policy  of  state.  Yet  as  the  Empire  grew 
the  teaching   of   doctrinaires    and    the   example 


I'' 
i'  I 


■  See  Tht  Day  of  Ou  Confederacy,  by  NAtbaniel  W.  Stephenson ;  sod 
The  Path  of  Empire  (is  The  Ckrmiclee  0/  Ameriat). 


130  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

of  other  colonial  powers  had  developed  a  definite 
policy  whereby  the  plantations  overseas  were  to 
be  made  to  serve  the  needs  of  the  nation  at  home. 
The  end  of  empire  was  commercial  profit;  the 
means,  the  political  subordination  of  the  colonies; 
the  debit  entry,  the  cost  of  the  military  and  naval 
and  diplomatic  services    tor'e   by  the  mother 
country.   But  the  course  o^  events  had  now  broken 
down  this  theory.    Britaix .  for  her  own  good,  had 
abandoned  protection,  and  with  it  fell  the  system 
of  preference  and  monopoly  in  colonial  markets. 
Not  only  preference  had  gone  but  even  equality. 
The  colonies,  notably  Canada,  which  was  most 
influenced  by  the  United  States,  were  perversely 
using  their  new  found  freedom  to  protect  their  own 
manufacturers  against  all  outsiders,  Britain  in- 
cluded. When  Sheffield  cutlers,  hard  hit  by  Canada's 
tariflF,  protested  to  the  Colonial  Secretary  end  he 
echoed  their  remonstrance,  the  Canadian  Minis- 
ter of  Finance,  A.  T.  Gait,  stoutly  refused  to  heed. 
" Self-government  would  be  utterly  annihilated," 
Gait  replied  in  1860,  "if  the  views  of  the  Imperial 
Government  were  to  be  preferred  to  those  of  the 
people  of  Canada.    It  is  therefore  the  duty  of  the 
present  government  distinctly  to  affirm  the  right 
of  the  Canadian  legislature  to  adjust  the  taxation 


THE  UNION  ERA  m 

of  the  people  in  the  way  they  deem  best  —  even  if 
it  should  unfortunately  happen  to  meet  the  dis- 
approval of  the  Imperial  Ministry."  Clearly,  if 
trade  advantage  were  the  chief  purpose  of  empire, 
the  Empire  had  lost  its  reason  for  being. 

With  the  credit  entry  fading,  the  debit  entry 
loomed  up  bigger.   Hardly  had  the  Com  Laws  been 
abolished  when  Radical  critics  called  on  the  British 
Government  to  withdraw  the  re!  oat  garrisons 
from  the  colonies:  no  profit,  no  defense.    Sk>wly 
but  steadily  this  reduction  was  effected.   To  fill  the 
gaps,  the  colonies  began  to  strengthen  their  militia 
forces.     In  Canada  only  a  beginning  had  been 
made  in  the  way  of  defense  when  the  Trent  episode 
brought  matters  to  a  crisis.    If  war  broke  out 
between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain, 
Canada  would  be  the  battlefield.    Every  Canadian 
knew  it;  nothing  could  be  clearer.  When  the  danger 
of  immediate  war  had  passed,  the  Parliament  of 
Canada  turned  to  the  provision  of  more  adequate 
defense.    A  bill  providing  for  a  compulsory  levy 
was  defeated  in  1868,  more  on  personal  and  party 
grounds  than  on  its  own  merits,  and  the  Ministry 
next  in  office  took  the  other  course  of  increasing 
the  volunteer  force  and  of  providing  for  officers' 
training.  Compared  with  any  earlier  arrangemenU 


ISI  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINKm 

for  defenie,  the  new  pl«u  marked  •  great  advance; 


but  when  judged  in  the  light  of  the  pouible  i 
•ity  of  repelling  Ammcan  invaaion,  they  were 
plainly  inadeqiiate.  A  bunt  of  eritidam  followed 
from  England;  pren  and  politicians  joined  in 
denouncing  the  blind  and  supine  colonials.  Did 
they  not  know  that  invasion  by  the  United  States 
was  inevitable?  "  If  the  people  of  the  North  fail, " 
declared  a  noble  lord,  "they  will  attack  Canada  as 
a  compensation  for  their  losses;  if  they  succeed, 
they  will  attack  Canada  in  the  drunkenness  of 
victory. "  If  such  an  invasion  came,  Britain  had 
neither  the  power  nor  the  will,  the  TtmM  declared, 
to  protect  Canada  without  any  aid  on  her  part; 
not  the  power,  for  "our  empire  is  too  vast,  our 
population  too  small,  our  antagonist  too  power- 
ful"; not  the  will,  for  "we  no  longer  monopolize 
the  trade  of  the  colonies;  we  no  longer  job  their 
patronage. "  To  these  amazing  attacks  Canadians 
replied  that  they  knew  the  United  States  better 
than  Englishmen  did.  They  were  prepared  to  take 
their  share  in  defense,  but  they  could  not  forget 
that  if  war  came  it  would  not  be  by  any  act  of 
Canada.  It  was  soon  noted  that  those  who  most 
loudly  denounced  Canada  for  not  arming  to  the 
teeth   were  the  Southern   sympathizers.     "The 


THE  UiaON  ERA  iss 

Tmu  hM  done  more  tlwii  its  ihve  in  creating  bad 
feding  between  England  and  the  United  SUtei." 
dedared  a  Toronto  newipaper,  "and  would  have 
liked  to  see  the  Canadians  t^e  up  the  quarrel 
which  it  has  raised.  ...  We  have  no  idea  of 
Canada  being  made  a  victim  of  the  JeflFerson  Bricks 
on  either  side  of  the  Atlantic." 

The  question  of  defense  fell  into  the  background 
when  the  war  ended  and  the  armies  of  the  Union 
went  back  to  their  farms  and  shops.  But  the  dis- 
cussion left  in  the  minds  of  most  Englishmen  the 
belief  that  the  possession  of  such  colonies  was  a 
doubtful  blessing.  Manchester  men  like  Bright. 
Liberals  like  Gladstone  and  Comewall  Lewis, 
Conservatives  like  Lowe  and  Disraeli,  all  came  U, 
believe  that  separation  was  only  a  question  of 
time.  Yet  honor  made  them  hesitate  to  set  the 
defenseless  colonies  adrift  to  be  seized  by  the  first 
hungry  neighbor. 

At  this  juncture  the  plans  for  uniting  all  the 
colonies  in  one  great  federation  seemed  to  open  a 
way  out;  united,  the  colonies  could  stand  alone. 
Thus  Confederation  found  support  in  Britain  as 
well  as  a  stimulus  from  tiie  United  Stiites.  This, 
however,  was  not  enough.  Confederation  would 
not  have  come  when  it  did  —  and  that  might  have 


MIOOCOfY   •ESOIUTION   TBI  CHAIT 

(ANSI  and  ISO  TESr  CH*<r  No.  2) 


125 


I.I 


|2£ 

,6 


^  rJPPLIED  IIVMnE    k 

^^  1653  Eojt  Moin  Streel 

Sis  f-ffr?*'-''  ^'^  ^°"'       '*609      US* 

aa;  (^'6)  «82  -  rjoo  -  phoob 

^S  C"6)  298-  5989  -  Fo. 


184  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

meant  it  would  never  have  come  at  all  —  had  not 
party  and  sectional  deadlock  forced  Canadian 
politicians  to  seek  a  remedy  in  a  wider  union. 

At  first  all  had  gone  well  with  the  Union  of  1841. 
It  did  not  take  the  politicians  long  to  learn  how  to 
use  the  power  that  responsible  government  put 
into  their  hands.  After  Elgin's  day  the  Governor 
General  fell  back  into  the  rdle  of  constitutional 
monarch  which  cabinet  control  made  easy  for  him. 
In  the  forties,  men  had  spoken  of  Sydenham  and 
Bagot,  Metcalfe  and  Elgin;  in  the  fifties,  they 
spoke  of  Baldwin  and  La  Fontaine,  Hincks  and 
Macdonald  and  Cartier  and  Brown,  and  less  and 
less  of  the  Governors  in  whose  name  these  men 
ruled.  Politics  then  attracted  more  of  the  coun- 
try's ablest  men  than  it  does  now,  and  the  party 
leaders  included  many  who  would  have  made  their 
mark  in  any  parliament  in  the  world.  Baldwin  and 
La  Fontaine,  united  to  the  end,  resigned  office  in 
1851,  believing  that  they  had  played  their  part 
in  establishing  responsible  government  and  feeling 
out  of  touch  with  the  radical  elements  of  their 
following  who  were  demanding  further  change. 
Their  place  was  taken  in  Canada  West  by  Hincks, 
an  adroit  tactician  and  a  skilled  financier,  intent 
on  railway  building  and  trade  development;  and 


I  : 


i:. 


fe 


m  IHE  CAVABUN  IXJillXinN 

rorjiul  it  ■iiin.lij  never  havi-  «iin.-  at  ai!  —  had  not 

psrly  na'   'i''''<I''>-k    T'liivd    CaimiJit, 

polilii  >    t   ,1  n-nivilv  111  11  nidrr  union. 

At  •  '  .'tint'  well  with  the  Taioii  of  IH  *  i . 

It  ii  .  .     ,'jt>  jmlituians  iong  to  learn  how  lo 

u»»   1  <f   ■luit   rcspjjnsihlc  j;?ii\crami-L>t   pj! 

iiil..  ',  After  p'lf^in'a  (lay 'he  (j'lVcrtor 

Gem'  i-   i.'ilo  i-hi>  roic  of  L'onslitutioriiil 

nior.fi  .liuatt  control  math-  ca^y  ior  him. 

In  1hi  ■■  n  hail  -poken  of  Syilcri.Sam  nnd 

sjxik."  "         ,     ^    ..  V ..  'i  '«'>i-  u'"i 

■willO  ■Mviili-'A  norniB^oa  »ilJ  oi  luntiol 

>1flt><t"  .in-i        i  iiri.i-.vn,  a!"l  U'ss  and 

Us',  ■  '.■^"  ''»  "'■'-.-».    -"iunp  t!i<-se  a!<  n 

r«,'i;j      ■  *  !iu'  ooiin- 

Sn-'n  lit  .  ■  -  .!  ,   ijarty 

leadtfrg  ia;-i  made  Ihcir 

mark  ill  an'  .    •■■jr.ti.    IJaMwin  and 

I, a  Fnntaii;(  .  ■.  end,  resiKnod  offii'e  in 

1S51,  bi'hVvifiH;  ii*«.it  tliey  had  played  ths'ir  jiart 
in  esta'jIishJnt'  •'  jitjn.'iihle  guVfrnmenf  and  fi-rtinj; 
out  L'f  toiicl.  I'h  the  radical  oJemeiit'*  of  iheii- 
fullowiiig  wh«  acre  dem.irjding  further  v:hMige. 
Their  place  «  a?  takpti  iu  Canada  We.st  b,  ■  H:?K'k.s. 
sn  adroit  tactician  and  a  skilled  finanoitf.  intent 
on  railway  (milding  amS   iriide  dfVi'!iipn)iait;  ami 


k 


THE  UNION  EBA  jjjj 

m  Canada  Eaat  by  Morin.  a  somewhat  colo,Ie.s 
lieutenant  of  La  Fontaine. 

But  these  leaders  in  turn  soon  gave  way  to  new 
men;  and  the  political  parties  gradually  fell  into 
a  sUte  of  flux.    In  Canada  West  there  were  still 
a  few  Tories,  survivors  of  the  Family  Compact 
and  last-ditch  defenders  of  privilege  in  Chureh  and 
State,  a  growing  number  of  moderate  Conserv- 
atives, a  larger  group  of  moderate  Liberals,  and  a 
small  but  aggressive  extreme  left  wing  of  "Clear 
Gnts,"  mainly  Scotch  Presbyterians,  foes  of  any 
claim  to  undue  power  on  the  part  of  class  or  clergy 
In  Canada  East  the  English  members  from  the 
Townships,  under  A.  T.  Gait,  were  ceasing  to  vote 
as  a  umt,  and  the  main  body  of  French-Canadian 
members  were  breaJcing  up  into  a  moderate  Liberal 
party,  and  a  smaller  group  of  Rmges,  fiery  young 
men  under  the  leadership  of  Papineau,  now  re- 
turned from  exile,  were  crusading  against  clerical 
pretensions  and  all  the  established  order. 

The  situation  was  one  made  to  the  hand  of 
a  master  tactician.  The  time  brought  forth  the 
man.  John  A.  Macdonald,  a  young  Kingston  law- 
yer of  Tory  upbringing,  or  "John  A.",  as  genera- 
tion after  generation  affectionately  called  him  was 
to  >rove  the  greatest  leader  of  men  in  Canada's 


»  fl 


I 


I 


hi 


ISO  THE  CANADlAr^  DOBflNION 

annals.  Shrewd,  tactful,  and  genial,  never  forget- 
ting a  face  or  a  favor,  as  popular  for  his  human 
frailties  as  for  his  strength,  Macdonald  saw  that 
the  old  party  lines  drawn  in  the  days  of  the  strug- 
gle for  responsible  government  were  breaking  down 
and  that  the  future  lay  with  a  union  of  the  mod- 
erate elements  in  both  parties  and  both  sec- 
tions. He  succeeded  in  1834  in  bringing  together 
in  Canada  West  a  strong  Liberal-Conservative 
group  and  in  effecting  a  permanent  alliance  with 
the  main  body  of  French-Canadian  Liberals,  now 
imder  the  leadership  of  Cartier,  a  vigorous  fighter 
and  an  easy-going  opportunist.  With  the  addi- 
tion of  Gait  as  the  financial  expert,  these  allies 
held  power  throughout  the  greater  part  of  the  next 
dozen  years.  Their  position  was  not  unchallenged. 
The  Clear  Grits  had  found  a  leader  after  their 
own  heart  in  Geoige  Brown,  a  Scotchman  of  great 
ability,  a  hard  hitter  and  a  good  hater  —  especially 
of  sla  ay,  the  Roman  Catholic  hierarchy,  and 
"John  A.  '*  Through  his  newspaper,  the  Toronto 
Globe,  he  wielded  a  power  unique  in  Canadian 
journalism.  The  Rouges,  now  led  by  A.  A.  Dorion, 
a  man  of  stainless  honor  and  essentially  moderate 
temper,  withdrew  from  their  extreme  anti-clerical 
position  but  could  not  live  down  their  youth  or 


If' 

a. 


^    ^■tV.^-r-^Uffl 


THE  UNION  ERA  iST 

make  head  against  the  forces  of  conservatism  in 
their  province.  They  did  not  command  many 
votes  in  the  House,  but  every  man  of  them  was  an 
orator,  and  they  remained  through  all  vicissitudes 
a  power  to  reckon  with. 

Step  by  step,  under  Liberal  and  und«r  Liberal- 
Conservative  Govemmcits,  the  programme  of  Can- 
adian Liberalism  was  carried  into  effect.  Self-gov- 
ernment, at  least  in  domestic  affairs,  had  been 
attained.  An  effective  system  of  municipal  govern- 
ment and  a  good  beginning  in  popular  education 
followed.  The  last  link  between  Church  and  SUte 
was  severed  in  1854  when  the  Clergy  Reserves 
were  turned  over  to  the  municipalities  for  secular 
purposes,  with  life  annuities  for  clergymen  who 
had  been  receiving  stipends  from  the  Reserves. 
In  Lower  Canada  the  remnants  of  the  old  feudal 
system,  the  'ights  of  the  seigneurs,  were  abolished 
in  the  same  year  with  full  compensation  from  the 
state.  An  elective  upper  Chamber  took  the  place 
of  the  appointed  Legislative  Council  a  year  later. 
The  Reformers,  as  the  Clear  Grits  preferred  to  call 
themselves  oflScially,  should  perhaps  have  been 
content  with  so  much  progress.  They  insisted, 
however,  that  a  new  and  more  intolerable  privilege 
had  arisen  — the  privilege  which  Canada  East 


im 


1S8  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

held  of  equal  representation  in  the  Legislative 
Assembly  long  after  its  population  had  fallen 
behind  that  of  Canada  West. 

The  political  union  of  the  two  Canadas  in  fact 
had  never  been  oomplete.  Throughout  the  Union 
period  there  were  two  leaders  in  each  Cabinet,  two 
Attorney  Generals,  and  two  distinct  judicial  sys- 
tems. Every  session  laws  were  passed  applying 
to  one  section  alone.  This  continued  separation 
had  its  beginning  in  a  clause  of  the  Union  Act  it- 
self, which  provided  that  each  section  should  have 
equal  representation  in  the  Assembly,  even  though 
Lower  Canada  then  had  a  much  larger  population 
than  Upper  Canada.  When  the  tide  of  overseas 
immigration  put  Canada  West  well  in  the  lead,  it 
in  its  turn  was  denied  the  full  representation  its 
greater  population  warranted.  First  the  Conser- 
vatives, and  later  the  Clear  Grits,  took  up  the  cry 
of  "Representation  by  Population."  It  was  not 
difficult  to  convince  the  average  Canada  West 
elector  that  it  was  an  outrage  that  three  French- 
Canadian  voters  should  count  as  much  as  four 
English-speaking  voters.  Macdonald,  relying  for 
power  on  his  alliance  with  Cartier.  could  not  ac- 
cept the  demand,  and  saw  seat  after  seat  in  Can- 
ada West  fall  to  Brown  and  his  "Rep.  by  Pop. 


1*1,  ■■ 

1. 


THK  UNION  ERA  ISB 

cnuadera.  Brown'))  succest  only  solidified  Canada 
East  against  him,  until,  in  ttic  early  sixties,  party 
lines  coincided  almost  with  sectional  lines.  Parties 
were  so  closely  matched  that  the  life  of  a  Ministry 
was  short.  In  the  three  years  ending  in  1864  there 
were  two  general  elections  aud  four  Ministries.  Po- 
litical controversy  became  bitterly  personal,  and 
corruption  was  spreading  fast. 

Constant  efforts  were  made  to  avert  the  threat- 
ened deadlock.  Macdonald,  who  always  trusted 
more  to  personal  management  than  to  constitu- 
tional expedients,  won  over  one  after  another  of 
the  opponents  who  troubled  him,  and  thus  post- 
poned the  day  of  reckoning.  Rival  plans  of  con- 
stitutional reform  were  brought  forward.  The 
sim.  ^t  remedy  was  the  repeal  of  the  union, 
leaving  etch  province  to  go  its  own  way.  But  this 
solution  was  felt  to  be  a  backward  step  and  one 
which  would  create  more  problen-s  than  it  would 
solve.  More  support  was  given  the  double  major- 
ity principle,  a  provision  that  no  measure  affecting 
one  section  should  be  passed  unless  a  majority  from 
that  section  favored  it,  but  this  method  broke  down 
when  put  to  a  practical  test.  The  Rouges,  and  later 
Brown,  put  forward  a  plan  for  the  abolition  of  legis- 
lative union  in  favor  of  a  federal  union  of  the  two 


I 

in 


ifll 


111 


IM  THE  CANADIAN  DOBinNION 

CansdM.  This  lacked  the  wide  vision  of  the  fourth 
suggestion,  which  was  destined  to  be  adopted  as 
the  solution,  namely,  the  federation  of  all  British 
North  America. 

Federal  union,  it  was  urged,  would  solve  party 
and  sectional  deadlock  by  removing  to  local  legis- 
latures the  questions  which  created  the  greatest 
divergence  of  opinion.  The  federal  union  of  the 
Canadas  alone  or  the  federal  union  of  all  Briti-  H 
North  America  would  either  achieve  this  end.  But 
there  were  other  ends  in  view  which  only  the  wider 
plan  could  serve.  The  needs  of  defense  demanded 
a  single  control  for  all  the  colonies.  The  probable 
kMs  of  the  open  market  of  the  United  States  made 
it  imperative  to  unite  all  the  provinces  in  a  single 
free  trade  area.  The  first  faint  stirrings  of  national 
ambition,  prompting  the  younger  men  to  throw 
off  the  lea  iing  stri-gs  of  colonial  dependence,  were 
stimulated  by  the  vision  of  a  country  which  would 
stretch  from  sea  to  sea.  The  westward  growth  of 
the  United  States  and  the  reports  of  travelers  were 
opening  men's  eyes  to  the  possibilities  of  the  vast 
lands  under  the  control  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Com- 
pany and  the  need  of  asserting  authority  over 
these  northern  regions  if  they  were  to  be  held  for 
the  Crown.    Eastward,  also,  men  were  awaking 


THE  UNION  ERA  hi 

to  their  iioUtion.  There  wm  not,  in  the  M«rit;  ■ 
Provincet,  any  popular  de«ire  for  union  with  the 
Canaf'-i  or  any  political  crisis  compelling  drastic 
remedy,  but  the  need  of  union  for  defense  was  felt 
in  some  quarters,  and  ambitious  politicians  who 
had  mastered  their  local  fields  were  beginning  to 
sigh  for  larger  worlds  to  conquer. 

It  took  the  patient  and  courageous  striving  of 
many  men  to  make  this  vision  of  a  united  country 
a  reality.    The  roll  of  the  Fathers  of  Confederation 
is  a  long  and  honored  one.    Yet  on  that  roll  there 
are  some  outetanding  names,  the  names  of  men 
wh  ae  serviL-es  were  not  merely  devoted  but  indis- 
p     table.    The  first  to  bring  the  question  within 
the  field  of  practical  politics  was  A.  T.  Gait,  but 
when  attempt  a'ter  attempt  in  1864  to  organize  a 
Ministry  with  •     .fe  workin*;  majority  had  failed, 
it  was  George  B  jati  who  proposed  that  the  party 
leaders  should  join  hands  in  devising  some  form  of 
federation.    Macdonald  had  hitherto  been  a  stout 
opponent  of  all  change  but,  once  converted,  he 
threw  himself  into  the  struggle  with  energy.     He 
never  appeared  to  better  advantage  than  in  the 
negotiations   of  the  next  few  years,  steering  the 
ship  of  Confederation  through  the  perilous  shoals 
of  personal  and  sectional  jealousies.     Few  had  a 


I 


!f 


"I 


M 


142  THE  CANADUN  DOMINION 

harder  or  a  more  important  task  than  Cartier's  — 
reconciling  Canada  East  to  a  project  under  which 
it  would  be  swamped,  in  the  proposed  federal  House, 
by  the  representatives  of  four  or  five  English-speak- 
ing provinces.  McDougall,  a  Canada  West  Re- 
former, shared  with  Brown  the  credit  for  awaken- 
ing Canadians  to  the  value  of  the  Far  West 
and  to  the  need  of  including  it  in  their  plans 
of  expansion.  D'Arcy  McGee,  more  than  any 
other,  fired  the  imagination  of  the  people  with 
glowing  pictures  of  the  greatness  and  the  limitless 
possibilities  of  the  new  nation.  Charles  Tupper, 
the  head  of  a  Nova  Scotia  Conservative  Ministry 
which  had  overthrown  the  old  tribune,  Joseph 
Howe,  had  the  hardest  and  seemingly  most  hope- 
less task  of  all;  for  his  province  appeared  to  be  con- 
tent with  its  separate  existence  and  was  inflamed 
against  union  by  Howe's  eloquent  opposition;  but 
to  Tupper  a  hard  fight  was  as  the  breath  of  his  nos- 
trils. In  New  Brunswick,  Leonard  Tilley,  a  man 
of  less  vigor  but  equal  determination,  led  the 
struggle  until  Confederation  was  achieved. 

It  was  in  June,  1864,  that  the  leaders  of  the  Par- 
liament of  Canada  became  convinced  thai  federa- 
tion was  the  only  way  out.  A  coalition  Cabinet 
was  formed,  with  Sir  Etienne  Tach£  as  nominal 


THE  UNION  ERA  143 

Premier,  and  with  Macdonald,  Brown,  Cartier, 
and  Gait  all  included.    An  opening  for  discussing 
the  wider  federation  was  offered  by  a  meeting  which 
was  to  be  held  in  Charlottetown,  Prince  Edward  Is- 
land, of  delegates  from  the  three  Maritime  Prov- 
inces to  consider  the  formation  of  a  local  union. 
There,  in  September,  1864,  went  eight  of  the  Cana- 
dian Ministers.   Their  proposals  met  with  favor.  A 
series  of  banquets  brought  the  plans  before  the 
public,  seemingly  with  good  results.    The  confer- 
ence was  resumed  a  month  later  at  Quebec.    Here, 
m  sixteen  working  days,  delegates  from  Canada, 
Nova  Scotia,  New  Brunswick,  Prince  Edward  Is- 
land, and  also  from  Newfoundland,  thirty-three 
in  all,  after  frank  and  full  deliberation  behind 
closed  doors,   agreed  upon   the  terms  of  union. 
Macdonald's  insistence  upon  a  legislative  union, 
wiping  out  all  provincial  boundaries,  was  over- 
ridden; but  the  lesson  of  the  conflict  between 
the  federal  and  state  jurisdiction  in  the  United 
States  was  seen  in  provisions  to  strengthen  the 
central  authority.    The  general  government  was 
empowered  to  appoint  the  lieutenant  governors 
of  the  various  provinces  and  to  veto  any  provin- 
cial law;  to  it  were  assigned  all  legislative  powers 
not  specifically  granted  to  the  provinces;  and  a 


•;     '    ,■ 


I 


Ut\ 


I'll 


144  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

subsidy  granted  by  the  general  government  in  lieu 
of  the  customs  revenues  resigned  by  the  provinces 
still  further  increased  their  dependence  upon  the 
central  authority. 

It  had  taken  less  t  n  three  weeks  to  draw  up 
the  plan  of  union.  It  ;x)ok  nearly  three  years  to 
secure  its  adoption.  So  far  as  Canada  was  con- 
cerned, little  trouble  was  encountered.  British 
traditions  of  parliamentary  supremacy  prevented 
any  direct  submission  of  the  question  to  the 
people;  but  their  support  was  clearly  manifested 
in  the  press  and  on  the  platform,  and  the  legisla^ 
ture  ratified  the  project  with  emphatic  majorities 
from  both  sections  of  the  province.  Though  it 
did  not  pass  without  opposition,  particularly  from 
the  Rouges  under  Dorion  and  from  steadfast 
supporters  of  old  ways  like  Christopher  Dunkin 
and  Sandfield  Macdonald,  the  fight  was  only  half- 
hearted. Not  so,  however,  in  the  provinces  by 
the  sea.  The  delegates  who  returned  from  the  Que- 
bec Conference  were  astounded  to  meet  a  storm 
of  criticism.  Local  pride  and  local  prejudice  were 
aroused.  The  thrifty  maritime  population  feared 
Canadian  extravagance  and  Canadian  high  tariffs. 
They  were  content  to  remain  as  they  were  and  fear- 
ful of  the  unknown.    Here  and  there  advocates 


THE  UNION  ERA  !« 

of  anneMtion  to  the  United  States  sweUed  the 
chorus.    Merchants  in  Halifax  and  St.  John  feared 
that  trade  would  be  drawn  away  to  Montreal 
Above  all,  Howe,  whether  because  of  personal 
pique  or  of  intense  local  patriotism,  had  put  him- 
self at  the  head  of  the  agitation  against  union, 
and  his  eloquence  could  still  play  upon  the  preju- 
^ces  of  the  people.    The  TiUey  Government  ii. 
New  Brunswick  was  swept  out  of  power  early  in 
1865.    Prince  Edward  Island  and  Newfoundland 
both  drew  back,  the  one  for  eight  years,  the  other 
to  remain  outside  the  fold  to  the  present  day.    In 
Nova  Scotia  a  similar  fate  was  averted  only  by 
Tupper's  Fabian  tactics.    Then  the  tide  turned. 
In  New  Brunswick  the  Fenian  Raids,  pressure  from 
the  Colonial  Office,  and  the  blunders  of  the  anti- 
Confederate  Government  brought  Tilley  back  to 
power  on  a  Confederation  platform  a  year  later. 
Tupper  seized  the  occasion  and  carried  his  motion 
through  the  Nova  ScoUa  House.    Without  seeking 
further  warrant  the  delegates  from  Canada,  Nova 
Scotia,  and  New  Brunswick  met  in  London  late  in 
1866.  and  there  in  consultaUon  with  the  Colonial 
Office  drew  up  the  final  resolutions.     They  were 
embodied  in  the  British  North  America  Act  which 
went  through  the  Imperial  Parliament  not  only 


i  i 


!    IH 


.;    f 


146  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

without  raising  questions  but  even  without  ex- 
citing interest.  On  July  1, 1867,  the  Dominion  of 
Canada,  as  the  new  federation  was  to  be  known, 
came  into  being.  It  is  a  curious  coincidence  that 
the  same  date  witnessed  the  establishment  of  the 
North  German  Bund,  which  in  less  than  three 
years  was  to  expand  into  the  German  Empire. 


m 


CHAPTER  IV 


THE  DATS  OF  TRIAL 


The  federation  of  the  four  provinces  was  an  ex- 
cellent achievement,  but  it  wa.?  only  a  beginning 
oh  the  long,  hard  road  to  nationhood.  The  Fa- 
thers of  Confederation  had  set  their  goal  and  had 
proclaimed  their  faith.  It  remained  for  the  next 
generation  to  seek  to  make  their  vision  a  reality. 
It  was  still  necessary  to  make  the  Dominion  actual 
by  bringing  in  all  the  lands  from  sea  to  sea.  And 
when,  on  paper,  Canada  covered  half  a  continent, 
union  had  yet  to  be  given  body  and  substance  by 
railway  building  and  continuous  settiement.  The 
task  of  welding  two  races  and  many  scattered 
provinces  into  a  single  people  would  call  for  all 
the  statesmanship  and  prudence  the  country  had  to 
give.  To  chart  the  relations  between  the  federal 
and  the  provincial  authorities,  wl  had  so  nearly 
brought  to  shipwreck  the  federal  experiment  of 
Canada's  great  neighbor,  was  like  navigating  an 


i 


f 


|j 


■i 


it  I 

n 


ir 


148  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

unknown  sea.  And  what  was  to  be  the  attitude  of 
the  new  Dominion,  half  nation,  half  colony,  to  the 
mother  country  and  to  the  republic  to  the  south, 
no  one  could  yet  foretell. 

The  first  problem  which  faced  the  Dominion 
was  the  organization  it  the  new  machinery  of 
government.  It  was  necessary  to  choose  a  federal 
Administration  to  guide  the  Parliament  which  was 
soon  to  meet  at  Ottawa,  the  capital  of  the  old 
Canada  since  1858  and  now  accepted  as  the  capital 
of  the  larger  Canada.  It  was  necessary  also  to 
establish  provincial  Governments  in  Canada  West, 
henceforth  known  as  Ontario  and  in  Canada  East, 
or  Quebec.  The  provinces  of  New  Brunswick  and 
Nova  Scotia  were  fo  retain  their  existing  provincial 
Governments. 

There  was  no  doubt  as  to  whom  the  Governor 
General,  Lord  Monck,  should  call  to  form  the  first 
federal  Administration.  Macdonald  had  proved 
himself  easily  the  greatest  leader  of  men  the  four 
provinces  had  produced.  The  entrance  of  two 
new  provinces  into  the  union,  with  all  the  possi- 
bilities of  new  party  groupings  and  new  personal 
alliances  it  involved,  created  a  situation  in  which 
he  had  no  rival.  His  great  antagonist.  Brown, 
passed  off  the  parliamentary   stage.    When  he 


THE  DAYS  OP  TRUL  m 

proposed  a  coalition  to  carry  through  federation, 
Brown  had  recognized   that  he  was  sacrificing 
his  chief  political  asset,  the  discontent  of  Canada 
West.    But  he  was  too  true  a  patriot  to  hesitate 
a  moment  on  that  score,  and  in  any  case  he  was 
sufficiently  confident  of  his  own  abilities  to  believe 
that  he  could  hold  his  own  in  a  fresh  field.    In  this 
expectation  he  was  deceived.    No  man  among  his 
contemporaries  surpassed  him  in  sheer  ability,  in 
fearless  honesty,  in  vigor  of  debate,  but  he  lacked 
Macdonald's  genial  and  supple  art  of  managing 
men.    And  with  broad  questions  of  state  policy  for 
the  moment  out  of  the  way,  it  was  capacity  in 
managing  men  that  was  to  count  in  determining 
success.     Never  afterward  did  Brown   take  an 
active  part  in  parliamentary  life,  though  still  a 
power  in  the  land  through  his  newspaper,  the 
Toronto  Globe,  which  was  regarded  as  the  Scotch 
Presbyterian's  second  Bible.    Of  the  other  leaders 
of  old  Canada,  Cartier  with   'ailing  health  was 
losing  his  vigor  and  losing  al  j  *he  prestige  with 
his  party  which  his  solid  Canada  East  majority 
had  given  him;  Gait  soon  retired  to  private  busi- 
ness, with  occasional  incursions  into  diplomacy; 
and  McGee  fell  a  victim  in  1868  to  a  Fenian  as- 
sassin.   From  the  Maritime  Provinces  the  ablest 


■  m 


.r 


li 


UO  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

recruit  was  Tupper,  the  most  dogged  fighter  in  Can- 
adian parliamentary  annals  and  a  lifelong  sworn 
ally  of  Macdonald. 

It  was  at  first  uncertain  what  the  grouping  of 
parties  would  be.  Macdonald  naturally  wished  to 
retain  the  coalition  which  assured  him  unques- 
tioned mastery,  and  the  popular  desire  to  give 
Confederation  a  good  start  also  favored  such  a 
course.  In  his  first  Cabinet,  formed  with  infinite 
difficulty,  with  provinces,  parties,  religions,  races, 
all  to  consider  in  filling  a  limited  number  of  posts, 
Macdonald  included  six  Liberal  ministers  out  of 
thirteen,  three  from  Ontario,  and  three  from  the 
Maritime  Provinces.  Yet  if  an  Opposition  had  not 
existed,  it  would  have  been  necessary  to  create  one 
in  order  to  work  the  parliamentary  machine.  The 
attempt  to  keep  the  coalition  together  did  not  long 
succeed.  On  the  eve  of  the  first  federal  election 
the  Ontario  Reformers  in  convention  decided  to 
oppose  the  Government,  even  though  it  contained 
three  of  their  former  leaders.  In  the  contest, 
held  in  August  and  September,  1867,  Macdonald 
triumphed  in  every  province  except  Nova  Scotia 
but  faced  a  growing  Opposition  party.  Under 
the  virtual  leadership  of  Alexander  Mackenzie, 
fragments  of  parties  from  the  four  provinces  were 


t 


THE  DAYS  OP  THUL  m 

united  into  a  single  Liberal  group.  In  a  few  yeai« 
the  majority  of  the  Liberal  rank  and  file  were  back 
in  the  fold,  and  the  Liberal  members  in  the  Cabinet 
had  become  frankly  Conservative.  Coalition  had 
faded  away. 


f 


Within  six  years  after  Confederation  the  whole 
northern  half  of  the  continent  had  been  absorbed  by 
Canada.    The  four  original  provinces  comprised 
only  one-tenth  of  the  area  of  the  present  Domin- 
ion, some  377,000  square  miles  as  against  3,730,- 
000  today.    The  most  easterly  of  the  provinces, 
little  Prince  Edward  Island,  had  drawn  back  in 
1865,  content  in  isolation.    Eight  years  later  this 
province  entered  the  fold.     Hard  times  and  a 
glimpse  of  the  financial  strength  of  the  new  federa- 
tion had  wrought  a  change  of  heart.    The  solution 
of  the  century-old  problem  of  the  island,  absentee 
landlordism,  threatened  to  strain  the  finances  of 
the  province;  and  men  began  to  look  to  Ottawa  for 
relief.    A  railway  crisis  turned  their  thoughts  in 
the  same  direction.    The  provincial  authorities  had 
recently  arranged  for  the  building  of  a  narrow- 
gauge  road  from  one  end  of  the  island  to  the  other. 
It  was  agreed  that  the  contractors,  should  be  paid 
£5000  a  mile  in  provincial  debentures,  but  without 


TP., 


)l 


ill 


»«  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

any  stipulation  aa  to  the  total  length,  so  that  the 
builders  caused  the  railway  to  meander  and  lig- 
zag  freely  in  search  of  lower  grades  or  long  paying 
stretches.  In  1873,  which  was  ever  Here  a  year 
of  black  depression,  it  was  found  that  these  deben- 
tures, which  were  pledged  by  the  contractors  to  a 
local  bank  for  advances,  could  not  be  sold  except 
at  a  heavy  loss.  The  directors  of  the  bank  were 
influential  in  the  Government  of  the  provmce. 
It  was  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  the  gov- 
ernment soon  opened  negotiations  with  OtUwa. 
The  Dominion  authorities  offered  generous  terms, 
financing  the  land  purchase  scheme,  and  taking 
over  the  railway.  Some  of  the  islanders  made 
bitter  charges,  but  the  Legislature  confirmed  the 
agreement,  and  on  July  1,  1873,  Prince  Edward 
Island  entered  Confederation. 

While  Prince  Edward  Island  was  deciding  to 
come  in.  Nova  Scotia  was  straining  every  nerve 
to  get  out.  There  was  no  question  that  Nova 
Scotia  had  been  brought  into  the  union  against  iU 
will.  The  provincial  Legislature  in  1866,  it  is  true, 
backed  Tupper.  But  the  people  backed  Howe, 
who  thereupon  went  to  London  to  protest  against 
the  inclusion  of  Nova  Scotia  without  consulting 
the  electors,  but  he  was  not,  heeded.    The  passing 


ISS 


THE  DAYS  OF  TRIAL  ._ 

of  the  Act  only  redoubled  the  agiution.    In  the 
provincial  election  of  1867.  the  anti-Confeu.rates 
carried  thirty-six  out  of  thirty-eight  seats.    In  the 
federal  election  Tupper  was  the  only  union  candi- 
date  returned  in  nineteen  seats  contested.     A 
•econd  delegation  was  sent  to  London  to  demand 
repeal.    Tupper  crossed  the  ocean  to  counter  this 
effort  and  was  successful.    Then  he  sought  out 
Howe,  urged  that  further  agitation  was  useless  and 
could  only  bring  anarchy  or.  what  both  counted 
worse,  a  movement  for  annexation  to  the  .United 
States,  and  pressed  him  to  use  his  influence  to 
allay  the  storm.    Ho  .e  gave  way;  unfortunately 
for  his  own  fame,  he  went  further  and  accepted  a 
seat  m  the  federal  Cabinet.    Many  of  his  old  fol- 
lowers kept  up  the  fight,  but  others  decided  to 
make  a  bargain  with  necessity.    Macdonald  agreed 
to  give  the  province  "better  terms,"  and  the  Do- 
minion assumed  a  larger  part  of  its  debt.     The 
bitterness  aroused  by  Tapper's  high-handed  prt)- 
cedure  imgered  for  many  a  day;  but  before  the 
first  Pariiament  was  over,  repeal  had  ceased  to 
be  a  practical  issue. 

Union  could  never  be  real  so  long  as  leagues  of 
barren,  unbroken  wild.mess  separated  the  mari- 
time from  the  central  provinces.    Free  intercourse. 


m 


Ii  ' 


IM  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

tie*  of  trade,  knowledge  which  would  sweep  away 
prejudice,  could  not  come  until  a  railway  had 
•panned  thii  wildemeas.  In  the  fiflies  plans  had 
been  made  for  a  main  trunk  line  to  run  from  Hali- 
fax to  the  Detroit  River.  Thi*  ambitious  scheme 
proved  too  great  for  the  resources  of  the  separate 
provinces,  but  sections  of  the  road  were  built  in 
each  province.  As  a  condition  of  Confederation, 
the  Dominion  Government  undertook  to  fill  in 
the  long  gaps.  Surveys  ./ere  begun  immediate- 
ly; and  by  1876,  under  the  direction  of  Sandford 
Fleming,  an  engineer  of  eminence,  the  Intercolonial 
Railway  was  completed.  It  never  succeeded  in 
making  ends  meet  financially,  but  it  did  make 
ends  meet  politically.  In  great  measure  it  achieved 
the  purpose  of  national  solidification  for  which  it 
was  mainly  designed. 

Meanwhile  the  bounds  of  the  Dominion  were 
being  pushed  westward  to  the  Pacific.  The  old 
province  of  Canada,  as  the  heir  of  New  France, 
had  vague  claims  to  the  western  plains,  but  the 
Hudson's  Bay  Company  was  in  possession.  The 
Dominion  decided  to  buy  out  its  rights  and  agreed, 
in  1869,  to  pa>  the  Company  £300,000  for  the 
transfer  of  its  lands  and  exclusive  privileges,  the 
Company  to  retain  its  trading  posts  and  two 


\\< 


THE  DAYS  OP  TRIAL  i« 

Mction.  in  every  towwhip.  So  far  all  went  well. 
But  the  Canadian  Government,  new  to  the  taalu 
of  empire  and  not  as  eflScient  in  administration  a* 
It  ihould  have  been,  overiooked  the  necessity  of 
consulting  the  wishes  and  the  prejudices  of  the 
men  on  the  spot.  It  was  not  merely  land  and  buf- 
falo  herds  which  were  being  transferred  but  also 
sovereignty  over  a  people. 

In  the  vaHey  of  the  Red  River  there  were  some 
twelve  thousand  mHis,  or  half-breeds,  descendants 
of  Indian  mothers  and  French  or  Scottish  fathers. 
The  Dominion  authorities  intended  to  give  them  a 
l*ige  share-    their  own  government  but  neglected 
to  arrange  for  a  formal  conference.   The  nUtu  were 
left  to  gather  their  impression  of  the  character  and 
mtenUon.,  of  the  new  rulers  from  indiscreet  and 
sometimes  overbearing  surveyora  and  land  seekers 
In  1869.  under  .ue  leadership  of  Louis  Riel.  the 
one  m-fl  of  education  in  the  settlement,  able  but 
vam  and  unbalanced,  and  with  the  Hudson's  Bay 
officials  looking  on  unconcerned,  the  mitu  decided 
to  oppose  being  made  "the  colony  of  a  colony  » 
The  Governor  sent  out  from  OtUwa  was  refused 
entrance,  and  a  provisional  Government  under  Rid 
assumed  control.     The  Ottawa  authr  ities  first 
tried  persuasion  and  sent  a  commissiou  of  three. 


I! 


) 


9 

1 


I 


i 


1S6 


THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 


I:. 


,1 


'^ 


*! 


Donald  A.  Smith  (afterwards  Lord  Strathcona), 
G>lonel  de  Salaberry,  and  Vicar  General  Tbibault. 
Smith  was  gradually  restoring  unity  and  order, 
when  the  act  of  Riel  in  shooting  Thomas  Scott, 
an  Ontario  settler  and  a  member  of  the  powerful 
Orange  order,  set  passions  flaring.  Mgr.  Tach6, 
the  Catholic  bishop  of  the  diocese,  on  his  return 
aided  in  quieting  the  mStu.  Delegates  were  sent 
by  the  Provisional  Government  to  Ottawa,  and, 
though  not  ofiScially  recognized,  they  influenced  the 
terms  of  settlement.  An  expedition  under  Colonel 
Wolseley  marched  through  the  wilderness  north  of 
Lake  Superior  only  to  find  that  Riel  and  his  lieu- 
tenants had  fled.  By  the  Manitoba  Act  the  Red 
River  country  was  admitted  to  Confederation  as  a 
self-governing  province,  under  the  name  of  Mani- 
toba, while  the  country  west  to  the  Rockies  was 
given  territorial  status.  The  Indian  tribes  were 
handled  with  tact  and  justice,  but  though  for  the 
time  the  danger  of  armed  resistance  had  passed,  the 
embers  of  discontent  were  not  wholly  quenched. 

The  extension  of  Canadian  sovereignty  beyond 
the  Rockies  came  about  in  quieter  fashion.  After 
Mackenzie  had  shown  the  way,  Simon  Fraser  and 
David  Thompson  and  other  agents  of  the  North- 
West  Company  took  up  the  work  of  exploration 


i^ 


THE  DAYS  OP  TRIAL  J57 

and  fur  trading.  With  the  union  of  the  two  rival 
companies  in  1881.  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company 
became  the  sole  authority  on  the  Pacific  coast, 
bettlers  straggled  in  slowly  until,  in  the  late  fifties 
the  discovery  of  rich  placer  gold  on  the  Fraser  and 
later  in  the  Cariboo  brought  tens  of  thousands  of 
mmers  from  Australia  and  California,  only  to  drift 
away  again  almost  as  quickly  when  the  sands 
began  to  fail. 

Wal  governments  had  been  established  both 
m  Vancouver  Island  and  on  the  mainland.     They 
were  jomed  in  a  single  province  in  1866.    One  of 
the  first  acts  of  the  new  Legislature  was  to  seek 
consolidation  with  the  Dominion.    Inspired  by  an 
enthusiastic  Englishman.  Alfred  Waddington.  who 
had  dreamed  for  years  of  a  transcontinental  rail- 
way, the  province  stipulated  that  within  ten  years 
Canada  should  complete  a  road  from  the  Pacific 
to  a  junction  with  the  railways  of  the  East.    These 
terms  were  considered  presumptuous  on  the  part  of 
a  little  settlement  of  ten  or  fifteen  thousand  whites- 
but  Macdonald  had  faith  in  the  resources  of  Can- 
ada and  in  what  the  morrow  would  bring  forth 
The  bargain   was  made;  and  British   Columbia 
entered  the  Confederation  on  July  1,  1871 
East  and  West  were  now  staked  out.    Only  the 


1^ 


m 

m 


m 

4\ 


us 


\i\ 


THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 


Far  North  remained  outside  the  bounds  of  the  Do- 
minion and  this  was  soon  acquired.  In  1879  the 
British  Government  transferred  to  Canada  all  its 
rights  and  claims  over  the  islands  in  the  Arctic 
Archipelago  and  all  other  British  territory  in  North 
America  save  Newfoundland  and  its  strip  of  Labra- 
dor. From  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  and  from 
the  forty-ninth  parallel  to  the  North  Pole,  now  all 
was  Canadian  soil. 


■    ■: 


l< 


0 


Confederation  brought  new  powers  and  new  re- 
sponsibilities and  thrust  Canada  into  the  field  of 
foreign  affairs.  It  was  with  slow  and  groping 
steps  that  the  Dominion  advanced  along  this  new 
path.  Then  —  as  now  —  for  Canada  foreign  rela- 
tions meant  first  and  foremost  relations  with  her 
great  neighbor  to  the  south.  The  likelihood  of  war 
had  passed.  The  need  for  closer  trade  relations 
remained.  When  the  Reciprocity  Treaty  waa 
brought  to  an  end,  on  March  17,  1866,  Canada  at 
first  refrained  from  raising  her  tariff  walls.  "The 
provinces,"  as  George  Brown  declared  in  1874, 
"assumed  that  there  were  matters  existing  in 
1865-66  to  trouble  the  spirit  of  American  statesmen 
for  the  moment,  and  they  waited  patiently  for  the 
sober  second  thought  which  was  very  long  in 


THE  DAYS  OP  TRIAL  j^j 

coining,  but  in  the  meantimo  n       j 

Z:T^'  ^f""^"'^  *°  «"""^  *'"'  United  tJZ 

e  treaty -free  navigation  and  free  ijoods  «nW 
.ub;ecttoalic.nsefee.acc..tothefi3S;"°'' 

vdopT.  T  "^r  '^"•''^^^  ""''  ^--^  fi"t  de- 
veloped.     Canadian  statesmen  were  d^t»^-     j 

^  prevent  poaching  on  the  ins,o:m^Zt 

a  ,  eei  ol  revenue  cruisers  beean  tn 

at  exclusion  from  waters  tl,ey  had  come  to  con 
^der  ^most  their  owr    and   there  were  mZ 


p 


I)i 


180  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

aa  well.  Canada  had  a  claim  against  the  United 
States  for  not  preventing  the  Fenian  Raids  of  1866; 
and  the  United  States  had  a  much  bigger  bill 
against  Great  Britain  for  neglect  in  permitting  the 
escape  of  the  Alabama.  Some  settlement  of  these 
disputed  matters  was  necessary;  and  it  was  large- 
ly through  the  activities  of  a  Canadian  banker 
and  politician,  Sir  John  Rose,  that  an  agreement 
was  reached  to  submit  all  the  issues  to  a  joint 
commission. 

Macdonald  was  offered  and  accepted  with  mis- 
givings a  post  as  one  of  the  five  British  Com- 
missioners. He  pressed  the  traditional  Canadian 
policy  of  offering  fishery  for  trade  privileges  but 
found  no  backing  in  this  or  other  matters  from 
his  British  colleagues,  and  he  met  only  unyield- 
ing opposition  from  the  American  Commissioners. 
He  fell  back,  under  protest,  on  a  settlement  of 
narrower  scope,  which  permi'.ted  reciprocity  in 
navigation  and  bonding  privileges,  free  admission 
of  Canadian  and  Newfoundland  fish  to  United 
States  markets  and  of  American  fishermen  to 
Canadian  and  Newfoundland  waters,  and  which 
provided  for  a  subsidiary  commission  to  fiy  the 
amount  to  be  paid  by  the  United  States  for  the 
surplus  advantage  thus  received.     The  Fenian 


THE  DAYS  OF  TOIAL  jei 

Rud,  claim,  were  not  even  considered,  and  Mac 
donald  wa.  angered  by  this  indifference  on  the 
paxtofh^BritishcoUeagues.    "  They  seen,  to  have 

vately  o  Ottawa,  "that  is,  to  go  home  to  England 
with  a  treaty  in  their  pocket,  settling  everXg 
no  matter  at  what  cost  to  Canada. "    Yet  wCh ' 

'zr: '"'  ''^  '^""'"^''*"  ^-'--"t  to  d"  L 

of  wfh  T''"  *'^  '-'''''  •='»"-  "^  *he  TVeaty 
of  Washington  i„  which  the  conclusions  of  the 

1  ;  pT"    ""'^  °'  ^''^  ^"'^^^  «  Canada, 

3aiT?"^'i''*°'^^''**^^*-*^--pti 

with  all  ,ts  imperfections,  to  accept  it  for  the  sake 
o^peace  and  for  the  sake  of  thereat  Em^re  „ 

u  us  o  the  peaceful  settlement  of  international 
^sputes  g.vcn  by  the  Geneva  Tribunal  whLh 
followed,  justified  the  subordination  of  Canada's 
specific  interests.  '^tnaaa  s 

the  new  Government  under  Alexander  Mackenzie 

II  M?  T"""^  "  *'^  «°-"-°t  of  Sir 
John  Macdonald  to  the  policy  of  bartering  fishery 


■ff 


*'4 


I 


'!' 


I 

4/l> 


in 


188  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

for  trade  advantage.  Canada  therefore  proposed 
that  instead  of  carrying  out  the  provisions  for  a 
money  settlement,  the  whole  question  should  be 
reopened.  The  Administration  at  Washington  was 
jympathetic.  George  Brown  was  appointed  along 
with  the  British  Ambassador,  Sir  Edward  Thorn- 
ton, to  open  negotiations.  Under  Brown's  ener- 
getic leadership  a  settlement  of  all  outstanding 
issues  was  dratted  in  1874,  which  permitted  free- 
dom of  trade  in  natural  and  in  most  manufactured 
products  for  twenty-one  years,  and  settled  fishery, 
coasting  trade,  navigation,  and  minor  boundary 
issues.  But  diplomats  proposed,  and  the  United 
States  Senate  disposed.  Protectionist  feeling  was 
strong  at  Washington,  and  the  currency  problem 
absorbing,  and  hence  this  broad  and  statesmanlike 
essay  in  neighborliness  could  not  secure  an  hour's 
attention.  This  plan  having  failed,  the  Canadian 
Government  fell  back  on  the  letter  of  the  treaty. 
A  Commission  which  consisted  of  the  Honorable 
E.  H.  Kellogg  representing  the  United  States,  Sir 
Alexander  T,  Gait  representing  Canada,  and  the 
Belgian  Minister  to  Washington,  M.  Delfosse,  as 
chairman,  awarded  Canada  and  Newfoundland 
$5,500,000  as  the  excess  value  of  the  fisheries  for 
the  ten  years  the  arrangement  was  to  run.    The 


w 


THE  DAYS  OP  TRIAL  j„ 

aw«-d  wa.  denounced  in  the  United  States  m 
absurdly  excessive,  but  a  sense  of  honor  anTth^ 
b.owledge  that  „u„ions  of  dollars  fro^th^  ;,' 

ttyl  t^  'Tk""^^"'  *''-^''  -'y  ^or  the 
up  .n  a  letter  fron,  Mackenzie  to  th7  Cd'at 

need  the  dollars,  and.  second,  becat:  ^  1^ 
first  Canadian  dipWtic  triun^ph.  and  will  Ju  tfy 
me  m  ms.tu.K  that  we  know  our  neighborand 

Mackenz.es  .ns,ste„ce  that  Canada  must  take 

wiSVd   V' ^""*'°' °^ ^" ^°-«" «ff-t 

wastooadvancedastandformanyof  his  more  con- 
ervaUve  countrymen.    For  others,  he  did  nor^ 

i^dj^  -~t  -  favor  of  Canadian  inde- 
s^mS^h  f  T^  -dependence  from  England 
seemed  the  logical  sequel  to  Confederation:  and 


P 


1 

j'l 

u 

n 


u  '  "3J 


ii 


I 


IM  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

the  rapid  expansion  of  Canadian  territory  over 
half  a  continent  stimulated  national  pride  and 
national  self-consciousness  Opinion  in  England 
regarding  Canadian  independence  was  still  more 
outspoken.  There  imperialism  was  at  its  lowest 
ebb.  With  scarcely  an  exception,  English  politi- 
cians, from  Bright  to  Disraeli,  were  hostile  or 
indifferent  to  connection  with  the  colonies,  which 
had  now  ceased  to  be  a  trade  asset  and  had  clearly 
become  a  military  liability. 

But  no  concrete  problem  arose  to  make  the 
matter  a  political  issue.  In  England  a  growing 
uneasiness  over  the  protectionist  policies  and  the 
colr<i  ial  ambitions  of  her  European  rivals  were 
soon  to  revive  imperial  sentiment.  In  Canada  the 
ties  of  affection  for  the  old  land,  as  well  as  the  in- 
ertia fostered  by  long  years  of  colonial  dependence, 
kept  the  independente  movement  from  spreading 
far.  For  the  time  the  rising  national  spirit  found 
expression  in  economic  rather  than  political  chan- 
nels. The  protectionist  movement  which  a  few 
years  later  swept  all  Canada  before  it  owed  much 
of  its  strength  to  its  claim  to  be  the  national  policy. 


But  it  was  not  imperial  or  foreign  relations 
that  dominated  public  interest  in  the  seventies. 


I" 


THE  DAYS  OF  TRIAL  ,„ 

Domestic  politic  were  intensely  absorbing  and 
baterlycont^ted.  Within  five  yea™  thereCme 
about  two  sudden  and  sweeping  reversals  of  power. 
Part.es  and  Cab.nets  which  had  seemed  firmVy  en- 

ctant  T  ''"-""-"y  °-rthrow„  by  sudden 
changes  m  the  personal  factors  and  in  the  issues  of 

!t.  ,  *•'"»"""«'  of  1872  the  second  general 
elecfonfor  theDominion  was  held.  TheOp^sition 
^dnowga.ned  in  strength.    The  Government  had 

of  the  old  Liberal  rank  and  file  were  back  in  the 

Alexander  Mackenzie. 
Mackenzie  had  come  to  Canada  f,.m  Scotland 

Z  T  "'  "  '^  °'  *'''°*^-  H«  '^"■■'"^  «t  tis  trade 
as  a  stonemason,  educated  himself  by  wide  reading 
and  constant  debating,  became  a  successful  con 

tTZ  f't'  ^""'"^-''«°"'  J""!  P-ed  him- 
self one  of  the  most  aggressive  and  uncompro- 
ncusmg  champions  of  Upper  Canada  Liberalism. 
In  the  first  Dominion  Parliament  he  tacitly  came 
to  be  regarded  as  the  leader  of  all  the  groups 
opposed  to  the  Macdonald  Administration  £ 
was  at  the  same  time  active  in  the  Ontario  Legis- 
ature  smce.  for  the  first  five  years  of  Confedera- 
tion, no  law  forbade  membership  in  both  federal 


]H 


H 


M 


r     *i 


IM 


THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 


I: 


I 


\4 

Hi 


!!l 


IHi 


and  provincial  Parliamenta,  and  the  short  sewions 
of  that  blessed  time  made  such  double  service 
feasible.  Here  he  was  aided  by  two  other  men 
of  outstanding  ability,  Edward  Blake  and  Oliver 
Mowat.  Blake,  the  son  of  a  well-to-do  Irishman 
who  had  been  active  in  the  fight  for  responsible 
government,  became  Premier  of  Ontario  in  1871 
but  retired  in  1872  when  a  law  abolishing  dual  rep- 
resentation made  it  necessary  for  him  to  choose  be- 
tween Toronto  and  Ottawa.  His  place  was  taken 
by  Mowat,  who  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  gave 
the  province  thrifty,  honest,  and  conservatively 
progressive  government. 

In  spite  of  the  growing  forces  opposed  to  him 
Mocdonald  triumphed  once  more  in  the  election 
of  1872.  Ontario  fell  away,  but  Quebec  and  the 
Maritime  Provinces  stood  true.  A  Conservative 
majority  of  thirty  or  forty  seemed  to  assure 
Macdonald  another  five-year  lease  of  power.  Yet 
within  a  year  the  Pacific  Scandal  had  driven  him 
from  office  and  overwhelmed  him  in  disgrace. 

The  Pacific  Scandal  occurred  in  connection  with 
the  financing  of  the  railway  which  the  Dominion 
Government  had  promised  British  Columbia,  when 
that  province  entered  Confederation  in  1871,  would 
be  built  through  to  the  Pacific  coast  within  ten 


m 


a. 


THE  DAYS  OP  TRIAL  ,07 

year..    The  bargain  wa«  good  politic  but  poor 
bu.u,«..    It  wa.  a  ra,h  undertaking  for  a  pCl 

ne.s  north  of  Lake  Superior,  th„.ugh  the  trackless 
Pla.ns  and  pra.nes  of  the  middle  west,  and  across 
the  mounUin  ranges  that  barml  the  coast  Yet 
Macdonald  had  sufficient  faith  in  the  country  ^ 
^nuelf.  and  in  the  happy  accidents  of  tin.7-a 
confidence  that  won  him  the  nickname  of  "Old 

JZioTf  -*°'^r*''«P'«=^«-  Thencamethc 
qu«,t,o„  of  ways  and  means.    At  fi„t  the  Govem- 

thought,  however,  it  decided  to  follow  the  example 
-t  by  the  United  States  in  the  construction "X 
Umon  Pac^e  and  Southern  Pacific,  and  to  ent^ 

d«edw,th.andando^h.  Two  companies  were  or- 
janjzed  wth  a  view  to  securing  the  contract,  one 
a  Montreal  company  under  Sir  Hugh  Allan  the 
fo^most  Canadian  man  of  business  and  the  Lead 
of  the  Allan  steamship  fleet,  and  the  other  a  To- 
ronto  company  under  D.  L.  Macphe,«,n.  who  had 
been  concerned  in  the  building  of  the  Grand  Trunk. 
Their  rivalry  was  intense.    After  the  election  of 


m 


ii! 


1^ 


l«g  THF  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

1878  a  itrong  compromi«e  company  wa»  formed, 
with  Allan  at  the  head,  and  to  thi»  company  the 
contract  wa«  awarded. 

When  Parliament  met  in  1872,  a  Liberal  mem- 
ber. L.  S.  Huntington,  made  the  charge  that  Allan 
had  really  been  acting  on  behalf  of  certain  Amer- 
ican capiUlLiU  and  that  he  had  made  lavi«h  con- 
tributions to  the  Government  campaign  fund  in 
the  recent  election.    In  the  course  of  the  summer 
these  charges  were  fully  substantiated.    Allan  was 
proved  by  his  own  correspondence,  stolen  from 
his  solicitor's  oJBce,  to  have  spent  over  $380,000, 
largely  advanced  by  his  American  allies,  in  buying 
the  favor  of  newspapers  and  politicians.    Nearly 
half  of  this  amount  had  been  contributed  to  the 
Cori.sc^  >  ^tive  campaign  fund,  with  the  knowledge 
and  at  the  in-sUnce  of  Cartier  and  Macdonald. 
Macdonald,  while  unable  to  disprove  the  charges, 
urged  that  there  was  no  connection  between  the  con- 
tributions and  the  granting  of  the  charter.    But  his 
defense  was  not  heeded.    A  wave  of  indignation 
swept  the  country,  his  own  supporters  in  Parlia- 
ment fell  away ;  and  in  November,  1873.  he  resigned. 
Mackenzie,  who  was  summoned  to  form  a  new  Min- 
istry, dissolved  Parliament  and  was  sustained  by  a 
majority  of  two  to  one. 


i 


THE  DAYS  OF  TRIAL  l«n 

Mackenzie  gave  the  country  honest  and  effi- 
cient administration.  Among  his  most  important 
achievements  were  the  reform  of  elections  by  the 
intit>duction  of  the  secret  ballot  and  the  require- 
ment that  elections  should  be  hela  on  a  single  day 
instead  of  being  spread  over  weeks,  a  measure  of 
local  option  in  controlling  the  liquor  traffic,  and 
the  establishment  of  a  Canadian  Supreme  Court 
and  the  Royal  Military  College  —  the  Canadian 
West  Point.  But  fate  and  his  own  limitations 
were  against  him.  He  was  too  absorbed  in  the  de- 
tails of  administration  to  have  time  for  the  work 
of  a  party  leader.  In  his  policy  of  constructing 
the  Canadian  Pacific  as  a  government  road,  after 
Allan  had  resigned  his  chui  t,  he  manifest  .a  a  cau- 
tion and  a  slowness  that  brought  British  Colum- 
bia to  the  verge  of  .secession.  But  it  was  chiefly 
the  world-wide  depression  that  began  in  his  first 
year  of  office,  1873,  which  proved  his  undoing. 
Trade  was  stagnant,  bankruptcies  multiplied,  and 
acute  suffering  occurred  among  the  poor  in  the 
larger  cities.  Mackenzie  had  no  solution  to  offer 
except  patience  and  economy;  and  the  Opposition 
were  freer  to  frame  an  enticing  policy.  The  coun- 
try was  turning  toward  a  high  tariff  as  the  solu- 
tion of  its  ills.    Protection  had  not  hitherto  been  a 


!■ 


1 1 


m 


:l! 


i 


170  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

party  issue  in  Canada,  and  it  was  still  uncertain 
wnich  party  would  take  it  up.  Finally  Mackenzie, 
who  was  an  ardent  free  trader,  and  the  Nova  Scot'  i 
wing  of  his  party  triumphed  over  the  protectionis  .5 
in  their  own  ranks  and  made  a  low  tariff  the  party 
platform.  Macdonald,  who  had  been  prepared  to 
take  up  free  trade  if  Mackenzie  adopted  protection, 
now  boldly  urged  the  high  tariff  panacea.  The 
promise  of  work  and  wages  for  all,  the  appeal  to 
national  spirit  made  by  the  arguments  of  self- 
sufficiency  and  fully  rounded  development,  the 
desire  to  retaliate  against  the  United  States,  which 
was  still  deaf  to  any  plea  for  more  liberal  trade 
relations,  swept  the  country.  The  Conservative 
minority  of  over  sixty  was  converted  into  a  still 
greater  majority  in  the  general  election  of  1878,  and 
the  leader  whom  all  men  five  years  before  had  con- 
sidered doomed,  returned  to  power,  never  to  lose 
it  while  life  lasted. 

The  first  task  of  the  new  Government,  in  which 
Tupper  was  Macdonald's  chief  supporter,  was  to 
carry  out  its  high  tariff  pledges.  "Tell  us  how  much 
protection  you  want,  gentlemen,"  said  Macdonald 
to  a  group  of  Ontario  manufacturers,  "and  we'll  give 
you  what  you  need. "  In  the  new  tariff  needs  were 
rated  almost  as  high  as  wants.    Particularly  on 


f 


THE  DAYS  OF  TRIAL  ,71 

textiles,  sugar,  and  iron  and  steel  products,  duties 
were  raised  far  beyond  theold  levels  and  stimulated 
investment  just  as  the  world-wide  depression  which 
had  lasted  since  1873  passed  away.  Canada  shared 
m  the  recovery  and  gave  the  credit  to  the  well- 
advertised  political  patent  medicine  taken  just  be- 
fore the  turn  for  the  better  came.  For  years  the 
National  Policy  or  "N.  P.,"  as  its  supporters 
termed  ,t,  had  all  the  vogue  of  a  popular  tonic. 

The  next  task  of  the  Government  was  to  carry 
through  in  earnest  the  building  of  the  railway  to 
the  Pacific.    For  over  a  year  Macdonald  persisted 
in  Mackenzie's  policy  of  government  construction 
but  with  the  same  slow  and  unsatisfactory  results. 
Ihen  an  opportunity  came  to  enlist  the  services  of 
a  private  syndicate.    Four  Canadians,  Donald  A 
Smith,  a  former  Hudson's  Bay  Company  factor 
l^eorge  Stephen,  a  leading  merchant  and  banker  of 
Montreal.  James  J.  Hill  and  Norman  W.  Kittson 
owners  of  a  small  line  of  boats  on  the  Red  River' 
had  joined  forces  to  revive  a  bankrupt  Minnesota! 
railway.  -    They  had  succeeded  beyond  all  parallel 
and  the  reconstructed  road,  which  later  devel- 
oped into  the  Great  Northern,  made  them  all  rich 


•I 

>     ^1 


■If 


I:, I. 


( 


!;-! 


n 


Is!- 


m  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

overnight.  This  success  whetted  their  appetite  for 
further  western  railway  buUding  and  further  mU- 
lions  of  rich  western  acres  in  subsidies.    They 
met  Ma-donald  and  Tupper  half  way.     By  the 
bargain  completed  in  1881  the  Canadian  Pacific 
Railway  Company  undertook  to  build  and  operate 
the  road  from  the  Ottawa  Valley  to  the  Pacific 
coast,  in  return  for   the  gift   of  the  completed 
portions  of  the  road  (on  which  the  Government 
spent  over  $37,000,000),  a  subsidy  of  $25,000,000 
in  cash,  25,000,000  selected  acres  of  prairie  land, 
exemption  from  taxes,  exemption  from  regulation 
of  rates  until  ten  per  cent  was  earned,  and  a 
promise  on  the  part  of  the  Dominion  to  charter  no 
western  lines  connecting  with  the  United  States 
for  twenty  years.    The  terms  were  lavish  and  were 
fiercely  denounced  by  the  Opposition,  now  under 
the  leadership  of  Edward  Blake.    But  the  people 
were  too  eager  for  railway  expansion  to  criticize 
the  terms.     The  Government  was  returned  to 
power  in  1882  and  the  contract  held. 

The  new  company  was  rich  in  potential  re- 
sources but  weak  in  available  cash.  Neither  in 
New  York  nor  in  Loadon  could  purse  stnngs  be 
loosened  for  the  purpose  of  building  a  road  through 
what  the  world  considered  a  barren  and  Arctic 


THE  DAYS  OF  TRIAL  ns 

wilderness.  But  in  the  faith  and  vision  of  the 
president,  George  Stephen,  and  the  ruthless  energy 
of  the  general  manager,  William  Van  Home 
American  bom  and  trained,  the  Canadian  Pacific 
had  priceless  assets.  Aided  in  critical  times  by 
further  govemment  loans,  they  carried  the  project 
through,  and  by  1886,  five  years  before  the  tjpie 
fixed  by  their  contract,  trains  were  running  from 
Montreal  to  Port  Moody,  opposite  Vancouver. 

A  sudden  burst  of  prosperity  followed  the  build- 
ing of  the  road.    Settlers  poured  into  the  Wc-st  by 
tens   of  thousands,   eastern    investors   promoted 
colonization  companies,  land  values  soared    and 
speculation  gave  a  fillip  to  every  line  of  trade.    The 
middle  eighties  were  years  of  achievement,  of  pros- 
perity, and  of  confident  hope.     Then  prosperitv 
fled  as  quickly  as  it  had  come.    The  West  failed  to 
hold  its  settlers.    Farm  and  factory  found  neither 
markets  nor  profits.    The  country  was  bled  white 
by  emigration.    Parliamentary  contest  and  racial 
feud  threatened  the  hard-won  unity.    Canada  was 
passing  through  its  darkest  hours. 

During  this  period,  political  friction  was  inces- 
sant. Canada  was  striving  to  solve  in  the  eight- 
ies the  difficult  question  which  besets  all  feder- 
ations -  the  limits  between  federal  and  provincial 


¥\ 


J      I 


'i 


IH*! 


11 


174  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

power.  Ontario  was  the  chief  chamrion  of  provin- 
cia.  rights.  The  struggle  was  intensified  by  the 
fact  tLat  a  Liberal  Government  reigned  at  To- 
ronto and  a  Conservative  Government  at  Ot- 
tawa, as  well  as  by  the  keen  personal  rivalry 
between  Mowat  and  Macdonald.  In  nearly  every 
constitutional  duel  Mowat  triumphed.  The  ac- 
cepted range  of  the  legislative  power  of  the  prov- 
inces was  widened  by  the  decisions  of  the  courts, 
particularly  of  the  highest  court  of  appeal,  the 
Judicial  Committee  of  the  Privy  Council  in  Eng- 
land. The  successful  resistance  of  Ontario  and 
Manitoba  to  Macdonald's  attempt  to  disallow 
provincial  laws  proved  this  power,  though  con- 
ferred by  the  Constitution,  to  be  an  unwieldy 
weapon.  By  the  middle  nineties  the  veto  had 
been  virtually  abandoned. 

More  serious  than  these  political  differences  was 
the  racial  feud  that  followed  the  second  Riel  Re- 
bellion. For  a  second  time  the  Canadian  Govern- 
ment failed  to  show  the  foresight  and  the  sym- 
pathy required  in  dealing  with  an  isolated  and 
backward  people.  The  valley  of  the  Saskatche- 
wan, far  northwest  of  the  Red  River,  was  the  scene 
of  the  new  difficulty.  Here  thousands  of  mMis,  or 
French  half-breeds,  had  settled.    The  passing  of 


THE  DAYS  OF  TRUL  n* 

the  buffalo,  which  had  been  their  chief  subsistence, 
and  the  arrival  of  settles  from  the  East  caused 

^Zl  °'''™-    '''^^  '''^^  ^^  Govern- 

ment for  certam  grants  of  land  and  for  the  reten- 
tion of  U,e  old  French  custom  of  surveying  the  land 
^ong  the  river  front  in  deep  nar«>w  strips,  rather 
than  according  to  the  chessboard  pattern  taken 

l^v^byCanadafromtheUnitedsJes.    £dtt 
mdifference.  procrastination,  rather  than  any  Si. 

w.  1   delayed  the  redress  of  the  grievances  o'the 

half-breeds      In  despair  they  called  Louis  Riel 

back  from  his  exile  in  Montana.    With  his  arrival 

the  ag.tat.on  acquired  a  new  and  dangerous  force. 

he  put  himself  at  the  head  of  his  people  and.  in 
the  sprmg  of  1885,  raised  the  flag  of  revolt.  His 
nuhtary  advuer.  Gabriel  Dumont,  an  old  buffalo 
Wer.  was  a  natural-born  general,  and  the  half- 
breeds  were  good  shots  and  brave  fighters.  An 
expedition  of  Canadian  volunteers  was  rushed 
w^t.  and  the  rebellion  was  put  down  quickly,  but 
not  without  some  hard  fighting  and  gallant  stakes 
apd  counterstrokes. 

The  racial  passions  roused  by  this  conflict,  how- 
ever did  not  pass  so  quickly.  The  fate  to  be  meted 
out  to  Riel  was  the  burning  quesUon.    Ontario 


fr. 


A   'I 


l/'*« 


'1/!' 


^i^-<lJ 


■i. 


176  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

saw  in  him  the  murderer  of  Scott  and  an  ambitious 
plotter  who  had  twice  stirred  up  armed  rebellion. 
Quebec  saw  in  him  a  man  of  French  blood,  perse- 
cuted because  he  had  stood  up  manfully  f <  r  the 
undoubted  rights  of  his  kinsmen.    Today  experts 
agree  that  Kiel  was  insane  and  should  have  been 
spared  the  gallows  on  this  if  on  no  other  account. 
But  at  the  moment  the  plea  of  insanity  was  re- 
jected.   The  Government  made  up  for  ite  laxity 
before  the  rebelUon  by  severity  after  it;  and  in 
November,  1885,  Kiel  was  sent  to  the  scaffold. 
Bitterness  rankled  in  many  a  French-Canadian 
heart  >or  long  years  after;  and  in  Ontario,  where 
the  Orange  order  was  strongly  entrenched,  a  fac- 
tion threatened  "to  smash  Confederation  into  its 
original  fragments  "  rather  than  submit  *o  "  French 
domination. 

Racial  and  religious  passions,  once  aroused,  soon 
found  new  fuel  to  feed  upon.  Honor6  Mercier,  a 
brilliant  but  unscrupulous  leader  who  had  ridden 
to  power  in  the  province  of  Quebec  on  the  Kiel 
issue,  roused  Protestant  ire  by  restoring  estates 
which  had  been  confiscated  at  the  conquest  in  1763 
to  the  Jesuits  and  other  Roman  Catholic  authori- 
ties, in  proportions  which  the  act  provided  were  to 
be  determined  by  "Our  Holy  Father  the  Pope." 


THE  DAYS  OP  TRUL  jrr 

faiOntario  restrictions  began  to  be  imposed  on  the 
freedom  of  French-Canadian  communities  on  the 

border  to  make  French  thesCeordominanttongue 
m  the  schoolroom.  A  little  later  the  controversy 
was  echoed  m  Manitoba  in  the  repeal  by  a  deter! 
mmed  P«,testant  majority  of  the  denominational 
«=hoo  p„v,leges  hitherto  enjoyed  by  the  Roman 
«^attioiic  mmority. 

Economic  discontent  was  widespread.  It  was 
a  t,me  of  low  and  falling  prices.  Farmers  found 
the  American  market  barred,  the  BriUsh  market 
flooded,  the  home  market  stagnant.    The  factories 

simulated  by  the  "N.  P."  lacked  the  g^oZg 
market  they  had  hoped  for.  In  the  West  cLatic 
oond>t.o„s  not  yet  understood,  the  monopoly  of  the 
Canad,,,  Pacific,  and  the  competition  ofVhe  States 

land    r     I"'"' '*'"'"' "'"'°°-'  —  °"ree 
land,  brought  settlement  vo  a  standstill.    From 

a«  parts  of  Canada  the  "exodus"  to  the  UnU^ 
States  conunued  until  by  1890  there  were  in  that 

Canadian  birth  or  descent  as  in  Canada  itself. 

It  was  not  surprising  that  in  these  extremities 

Z  T  ''"^""'  '°  ""^'^  *"■•''  "^  'I'-tic  reme- 
dies.  Nor  wa.  It  smprising  that  it  was  beyond  the 


''    I! 


178  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

borders  of  Canada  iUt  f  that  they  sought  the  unity 
and  the  prosperity  they  had  not  found  at  home. 
Many  looked  to  Washington,  some  for  unrestricted 
trade,  a  few  for  poUtical  union.  Others  looked  to 
London,  hoping  for  a  revival  of  the  old  imperial 
Uriff  preferences  or  for  some  closer  political  uiiion 
which  would  bring  commercial  advantages  in  its 

train. 

The  decade  from  1885  to  1896  stands  out  in  the 
record  of  the  relations  of  the  English-speaking 
peoples  as  a  time  of  constant  friction,  of  petty 
pin  pricks,  of  bluster  and  retaUation.    The  United 
States  was  not  in  a  neighborly  mood.    The  mem- 
ories of  1776,  of  1812,  and  of  1861  had  been  kept 
green  by  exuberant  comment  in  school  textbooks 
and  by  "spread-eagle"  oratory.    The  absence  of 
any   other  rivahy  concentrated  American  oppo- 
sition on  Great  Britein,  and  isolation  from  Old 
World  interests  encouraged  a  provincial  lack  of 
responsibility.    The  sins  of  England  in  Ireland  had 
been  kept  to  the  fore  by  the  agitation  of  Pamell 
and  Davitt  and  DUlon;  and  the  failure  of  Home 
Rule  measures,  twice  in  this  decade,  stirred  Irish- 
American  antagonism.    The  accession  to  power  of 
Lord  Salisbury,  reputed  to  hold  the  United  States 
in  contempt,  and  later  the  foolish  indiscretion  of 


THE  DAYS  OP  TRUL  „„ 

Washington,  in  mtervening  in  a  guileless  way  in  the 

E  s  ir°"  °'  '^-  '"■''  -  --^  tr:„^! 

of  H  ■".    '  ^"^'^  ^"^"^  «  t''-  dominance 

«en«e  art  of  tw.st.ng  the  tail  of  the  British  lion. 
We  which  ,t  involved  and  bred,  was  then  at  L 
S'    ^"?  °'  *'"  ^«'*'""*^  -^  directed  agaiil^ 

«sr'o:r;r:r*"""'^-  ^"^" 

f-r^«dereLC::;l;rr::;i^-s 
:e™.Sgt::7a/xri:-^^^^ 

;^theinshorefisher.privileg::";i?r:C 
U.^  ^ducfons  led  to  a  rigid  and  literal  enfor^ 
««.t  of  Canadian  rights  and  claims  which  pro- 
voked widespread  anger  in  New  England.     Z 
Mcy  of  discriniination  in  canal  tolls'in  favor  o 
Canadian  as  agauist  United  States  ports  was  none 
the  less  .muting  because  it  was  a  retort  in  kiS 
And  when  United  States  customs  officials  levied  a 
^  on  the  tin  cans  containing  fish  free  by  treaty 
Canadian  officials  had  retaliated  by  taLg  tt 
baskets  containing  duty-free  peachi  ' 

The  most  importantspecific  issue  was  once  more 


•■:  I 


i'i 


l-l- 


180  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

the  northeastern  fisheries.  As  a  result  of  notice 
given  by  the  United  States  the  fisheries  clauses 
of  the  Treaty  of  Washington  ceased  to  operate  on 
July  1,  1S8S.  Canada,  for  the  sake  of  peace,  ad- 
mitted American  fishing  vessels  for  the  rest  of  that 
season,  though  Canadian  fish  at  once  became  duti- 
able. No  further  grace  wa.s  given.  The  Canadian 
authorities  rigidly  enforced  the  rules  barring  in- 
shore fishing,  and  in  addition  denied  port  privileges 
to  deep-sea  fishing  vessels  and  forbade  American 
boats  to  enter  Canadian  ports  for  the  purpose  of 
trans-shipping  crews,  purchasing  bait,  or  shipping 
fish  in  bond  to  the  United  States.  Every  time  a 
Canadian  fishery  cruiser  and  a  Gloucester  skipper 
had  a  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  exact  where- 
abouts of  the  three-mile  limit,  the  press  of  both 
countries  echoed  the  conflict.  Con^-Tess  in  1887 
empowered  the  President  to  retaliate  by  excluding 
Canadian  vessels  and  goods  from  American  ports. 
Happily  this  power  was  not  used.  Cleveland  and 
Secretary  of  State  Bayard  were  genuinely  anx- 
ious to  have  the  issue  settled.  A  joint  commission 
drew  up  a  well-considered  plan,  but  in  the  face  of 
a  presidential  election  the  Senate  gave  it  short 
shrift.  Fortunately,  however,  a  modtia  vivendi  was 
arranged  by  .vhich  American  vessels  were  admitted 


THE  DAYS  OF  TRUL  «, 

toportprivilqje.„„p.y„,„t„,,,.^^ 

mg  &hn.g  method,,  and  Canada's  .bandonn.ent 
of  her  old  policy  of  using  fishing  privilege,  a.  a 
makeweight,  gradually  eased  the  friction 

Yet  da  wa.  not  the  fishing  question,  there  was 
.ure  to  be  some  other  issue  ~  bonding  privileges 
Canadian  Pacific  interloping  in  wester^  rai,  ha^^; 
Ur.ff  rates,  or  canal  tolls  -  to  dist,„b  the  peace. 
Why  not  seek  a  remedy  once  for  all.  men  now 
began  to  ask.  by  ending  the  unnatural  sepaTa 
^on  between  the  halves  of  the  continent  which 
God  and  geography  had  joined  and  history  and 
perverse  politicians  had  kept  asunder? 

Sta^^r"?"'  "f°  °'  '''"""^  "'«'  *•»«  United 
SUte,  has  always  found  advocates.  In  the  United 
SUtes  a  large  proportion,  perhaps  a  majority,  of 
the  people  have  until  recently  considered  that  the 
absorption  of  Canada  into  the  Republic  was  its 
manifest  destiny,  though  there  has  been  little 
concerted  effort  to  hasten  fate.     In  Canada  such 

vT,  i  ""°"  '■"  '"""^  '"-h  '-  backing. 
United  Empire  Loyalist  traditions,  the  ties  with 
Bnum  constantly  renewed  by  immigration,  the 
dim  s^^ngs  of  national  sentiment,  resentment 
agamst  the  trade  policy  of  the  United  SUtes.  have 


F';i 


i  ^ 

:i^. 


1 


IM  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

all  helped  to  turn  populmr  (entiment  into  other 
channels.  Only  r '  two  periodi,  in  1840,  and  forty 
yean  later,  has  tbere  been  any  active  movement 
for  annexation. 

In  the  late  eighties,  as  in  the  late  forties,  com- 
mercial depression  and  racial  strife  prepared  the 
■oil  for  the  seed  of  annexation.  The  chief  sower 
in  the  later  period  was  a  brilliant  Oxford  don, 
Goldwin  Smith,  whose  sympathy  with  the  cause  of 
the  North  had  brought  him  to  the  United  States. 
In  1871,  after  a  brief  residence  ut  Cornell,  he  made 
his  home  in  Toronto,  with  high  hopes  of  stimulat- 
ing the  intellectual  life  and  molding  the  political 
future  of  the  colony.  He  so  far  forsook  the  strait 
"Manchester  School"  of  his  upbringing  as  to  sup- 
port Macdonald's  campaign  for  protection  in  1878. 
But  that  was  the  limit  of  his  adaptability.  To  the 
end  he  remained  out  of  touch  with  Canadian  feel- 
ing. His  campaign  for  annexation,  or  for  the 
reunion  of  the  English-speaking  peoples  on  this 
continent,  as  he  preferred  to  call  it,  was  able 
and  persistent  but  moved  only  a  narrow  circle  of 
readers.  It  was  in  vain  that  he  offered  the  example 
of  Scotland's  prosperity  after  her  union  with  her 
southern  neighbor,  or  insisted  that  Canada  was 
cut  into  four  distinct  and  unrelated  sections  each 


THK  DAYS  OP  TRUI,  ,,, 

two  experiment.,  in  demorra^v   „  ♦ 

venture.  "emooraoy,  not  one  unwieldy 

Commercial  union  was  a  h«l*  », 

found  more  favor.    7  North  "7  """"  "'"'' 
union  h«H  K  American  custom* 

st^L  A.  d:;;::'^:^  v^f  ^"'"'■''  "■-  - 

H.  Seward  bv  ^ffl     i  ^'^'''^'  ""'^  William 

Dertv        '/ T         "'  "'^«'''«««tor,  such  as  Taylor 

House  o/  Representatives  in  1868.  1876.  1880.  and 
apracUcal  question.    Erastus  wln  a  "'T' 

:^r:°-^^---■n*Heun;;:dTatr,:^: 

'     '^'^  "  ^'«»"'"«  '^"'"Paign  in  its  favor  LthZ 
Confess  and  among  the  Canadian  pubhc     G„.H 

**°°t'e»'  newspapers  joined  the  movement. 


184 


THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 


and  Ontario  fanners'  organizations  swung  to  its 
support.  But  the  agitation  proved  abortive  owing 
to  the  triumph  of  high  protection  in  the  presiden- 
tial election  of  1888;  and  in  Canada  the  red  herring 
of  the  Jesuits'  Estates  controversy  was  drawn 
across  the  trail. 

Yet  the  question  would  not  down.  The  political 
parties  were  compelled  to  define  their  attitude. 
The  Liberals  had  been  defeated  once  more  in  the 
election  of  1887,  where  the  continuance  of  the  Na- 
tional Policy  and  of  aid  to  the  Canadian  Pacific 
had  been  the  issue.  Their  leader,  Edward  Blake, 
had  retired  disheartened.  His  place  had  been  ta- 
ken by  a  young  Quebec  lieutenant,  Wilfrid  Laurier, 
who  had  won  fame  by  his  courageous  resistance 
to  clerical  aggression  in  his  own  province  and  by 
his  indictment  of  the  Macdonald  Government  in 
the  Riel  issue.  A  veteran  Ontario  Liberal,  Sir 
Richard  Cartwright,  urged  the  adoption  of  com- 
mercial union  as  the  party  policy.  Laurier  would 
not  go  so  far,  and  the  policy  of  unrestricted  reci- 
procity was  made  the  official  programme  in  1888. 
Commercial  union  had  involved  not  only  absolute 
free  trade  between  Canada  and  the  United  States 
but  common  excise  rates,  a  common  tariff  against 
the  rest  of  the  world,  and  the  division  of  customs 


THE  DAYS  OF  TRIAL  jgs 

Unrestncted  reciprocity  would  mean  freTtrade 
be  wee.  the  two  countries,  but  with  each  left  f^ 
to  levy  what  rates  it  pleased  on  the  products^ 
other  countries. 

When  in  1891  the  time  came  round  once  more 
fora  general  election,  it  was  apparent  that  reci- 
procity m  some  form  would  be  the  dominant  is- 

uLl  sJ   *^«r'"""  ^"'  '-  P«-'  -  the 

fil^l  T."°'^  """"^^  ^^''y  *"*'*  "^-^  than  ful- 
filled the,r  h.gh  tariff  pledges  in  the  McKinley  Act 

^ch  h,t  Canadian  farm  products  partic'ul^ly 

Wd.  there  was  some  chance  of  terms  being  made 

Reciproc.  y.  as  a  form  of  tariff  bargaining  really 

^dBlame.  Harrison-sSecretary  of  State,  wascom- 
nutted  to  a  pohcy  of  trade  treaties  and  trade 
bargammg.   I„  Canada  the  demand  for  the  United 

In  Thl  r  V  ',  ^""^  '^'^^  '■""^•"-^  «^'=P- 
s^icted  reciprocity,  seemed  destined  to  reap  the 
advantage  of  this  rising  tide  of  feeling,  'rhen 
suddenly,  on  the  eve  of  the  election.  Sir  John  Mac 
donald  sought  to  cut  the  ground  from  under  the 
feet  of  his  opponents  by  the  announcement  that 
•n  the  course  of  a  discussion  of  Newfoundland 


.    4 


/I 


186  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

matters  the  United  States  had  taken  the  initiative 
in  suggesting  to  Canada  a  settlement  of  all  out- 
standing difficulties,  fisheries,  coasting  trade,  and 
tariffs,  on  the  basis  of  a  renewal  and  extension 
of  the  Reciprocity  Treaty  of  1854.  This  policy 
promised  to  meet  all  legitimate  economic  needs 
of  the  country  and  at  the  same  time  avoid  the  po- 
litical dangers  of  the  more  sweeping  policy.  Its 
force  was  somewhat  weakened  by  the  denials  of 
Secretary  Blaine  that  he  had  taken  the  initiative  or 
made  any  definite  promises.  As  the  election  drew 
near  and  revelations  of  the  annexationist  aims  of 
some  supporters  of  the  wider  trade  policy  were 
made,  the  Government  made  the  loyalty  cry  its 
strong  card.  "The  old  man,  the  old  flag,  and  the 
old  policy,"  saved  the, day.  In  Ontario  and  Que- 
bec the  two  parties  were  evenly  divided,  but  the 
West  and  the  Maritime  Provinces,  the  "shreds 
and  patches  of  Confederation,"  as  Sir  Richard 
Cartwright,  too  ironic  and  vitriolic  in  his  speech 
for  political  success,  termed  them,  gave  the  Gov- 
ernment a  working  majority,  which  was  increased 
in  by-elections. 

Again  in  power,  the  Government  made  a  for- 
mal attempt  to  carry  out  its  pledges.  Two  pilgrim- 
ages were  made  to  Washington,  but  the  negotiators 


THE  DAYS  OF  TRIAL  197 

were  too  far  apart  to  come  to  terms.    With  the 
triumph  of  the  Democrats  in  1892  and  the  lowering 
of  the  tariff  on  farm  products  which  followed,  there 
came  a  temporary  improvement  in  trade  relations 
But  the  tariff  reaction  and  the  silver  issue  brought 
back  the  Republicans  and  led  to  that  climax  in 
agricultural  protecUon.  the  Dingley  Act  of  1897 
which  killed  among  Canadians  all  reciprocity  long- 
ings and  compelled  them  to  look  to  themselves 
for  salvation.    Although  Canadians  were  amdous 
for  trade  relations,  they  were  not  willing  to  be 
bludgeoned  into  accepting  one-sided  terms.    The 
setUement  of  the  Bering  Sea  dispute  in  1893  by 
a  board  of  arbitration,  which  ruled  against  the 
claims  of  the  United  States  but  suggested  a  re- 
tncUon  of  pelagic  sealing  by  agreement,  removed 
one  source  of  friction.    Hardly  was  that  out  of  the 
way  when  Cleveland's  Venezuela  message  brought 
Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  once  more  to 
the  verge  of  war.    In  such  a  war  Canadians  knew 
they  would  be  the  chief  sufferers,  but  in  1895,  as  in 
1868.  they  did  not  flinch  and  stood  ready  to  sup- 
port the  mother  country  in  any  outcome.     The 
Venezuela  episode  stirred  Canadian  feeling  deeply, 
revived  interest  in  imperialism,  and  ended  the  last 
Imgering  remnants  of  anysentimentforannexation. 


18B  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

As  King  Edward  I  was  termed  "the  hammer  of 
the  Scots,"  so  McKinley  and  Cleveland  became 
"the  hammer  of  the  Canadians,"  welding  them 
into  unity. 


While  most  Canadians  were  ceasing  to  look  to 
Washington  for  relief,  an  increasing  number  were 
looking  once  more  to  London.  The  revival  of  im- 
perial sentiment  which  began  in  the  early  eighties, 
seemed  to  promise  new  and  greater  possibilities 
for  the  colonies  overseas.  Political  union  in  the 
form  of  imperial  federation  and  commercial  imion 
through  reciprocal  tariff  preferences  were  urged  in 
turn  as  the  cure  for  all  Canada's  ills.  Neither  solu- 
tion was  adopted.  The  movement  greatly  in- 
fluenced the  actual  trend  of  affairs,  but  there 
was  to  be  no  mere  turning  back  to  the  days  of 
the  old  empire. 

The  period  of  laiaaez  faire  in  imperial  matters, 
of  Little  Englandism,  drew  to  a  close  in  the  early 
eighties.  Once  more  men  began  to  value  empire, 
to  seek  to  annex  new  territory  overseas,  and  to 
bind  closer  the  existing  possessions.  The  world 
was  passing  through  a  reaction  destined  to  lead  to 
the  earth-shaking  catastrophe  of  1914.  The  ideals 
of  peace  ana  free  trade  preached  and  to  some 


THE  DAYS  OF  TRUL  189 

degree  practiced  in  the  fifties  and  sixties  were 
passing  under  an  eclipse.    In  Europe  the  swing  to 
free  trade  had  halted,  and  nation  after  nation  was 
becoming  aggressively  protectionist.    The  triumph 
of  Prussia  in  the  War  of  1870  revived  and  inten- 
sified military  rivalry  and  military  preparations 
on  the  part  of  all  the  powers  of  Europe.     A  new 
scramble  for  colonies  and  possessions  overseas  be- 
gan, with  the  late  comers  nervously  eager  to  make 
up  for  time  lost.    In  this  reaction  Britain  shared. 
Protection  raised  its  head  again  in  England;  only 
by  tariffs  and  tariff  bargaining,  the  i'air  Traders 
msisted,  could  the  country  hold  its  own.     Odds 
and  ends  of  territory  overseas  were  ainexed  and 
a  new  value  was  attached  to  the  existing  colonies. 
The  possibility  of  obtaining  from  them  military 
support  and  trade  privileges,  the  desirability  of  re- 
turning to  the  old  ideal  of  a  self-contained  ;tnd  cen- 
tralized empire,  appealed  now  to  influentia  groups. 
This  goal  might  be  attained  by  different  paths. 
Prom  the  United  Kingdom  came  the  policy  of  im- 
perial federation  and  from  the  colonies  the  policy 
of  preferential  trade  as  means  to  this  end. 

In  1884  the  Imperial  Federation  League  was 
organized  in  London  with  important  men  of  both 
parties  in  its  ranks.    It  urged  the  setting  up  in 


1      !,1 

:  ■>♦! 


In 


190  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

London  of  a  new  Parliament,  in  which  the  United 
Kingdom  and  all  the  colonies  where  white  men 
predominated  would  be  represented  according  to 
population.  This  Parliament  would  have  power 
to  frame  policies,  to  make  laws,  and  to  levy  taxes 
for  the  whole  Empire.  To  the  colonist  it  offered 
an  opportunity  to  share  in  the  control  of  foreign 
affairs;  to  the  Englishman  it  offered  the  support  of 
colonies  fast  growing  to  power  and  the  assurance 
of  one  harmonious  policy  for  all  the  Empire.  Both 
in  Britain  and  overseas  the  movement  received 
wide  support  and  seemed  for  a  time  likely  to  sweep 
all  before  it.    Then  a  halt  came. 

Imperial  federation  had  been  brought  forward  a 
generation  too  late  to  succeed.  The  Empire  had 
been  developing  upon  lines  which  could  not  be 
made  to  conform  to  the  plans  for  centralized  par- 
liamentary control.  It  was  not  possible  to  go  back 
to  the  parting  of  the  ways.  Slowly,  unconsciously, 
unevenly,  yet  steadily,  the  colonies  had  been  ceas- 
ing to  be  dependencies  and  had  been  becoming 
nations.  With  Canada  in  the  vanguard  they  had 
been  taking  over  one  power  after  another  which 
had  formerly  been  wielded  by  the  Government  of 
the  United  Kingdom.  It  was  not  likely  that  they 
would  relinquish  these  powers  or  that  self-governing 


THE  DAYS  OP  TRIAL  19, 

colonies  would  consent  to  be  subordinated  to  a  Par- 
liament in  London  in  which  es'-h  would  have  only 
a  fragmentary  representatioi 

The  policy  of  imperial  cooperation  which  began 
to  take  shape  during  this  period  sought  to  recon- 
cile the  existing  desire  for  continuing  the  connec- 
tion with  the  mother  country  with  the  growing  sense 
of  national  independence.  This  policy  involved  two 
deferent  courses  of  action:  first,  the  colonies  must 

assert  and  securecompleteself-govemmenton  terms 
of  equality  with  the  Umted  Kingdom;  second,  they 
must  unite  as  partners  or  allies  in  carryingout  com- 
mon tasks  and  policies  and  in  buUding  up  machinery 
for  mutual  consultation  and  harmonious  action 

It  was  chiefly  in  matters  of  trade  and  tariffs  that 
progress  was  made  in  the  direction  of  self-govem- 
ment.    Gait  had  asserted  in  1859  Canada's  right 
to  make  her  own  tariffs,  and  Macdonald  twenty 
years  later  had  carried  still  further  the  policy  of 
levying  duUes  upon  Engh'sh  as  well  as  foreign 
goods.    That  economic  point  was  therefore  settled 
but  it  was  a  slower  matter  to  secure  control  of 
treaty-making  powers.    When  Gait  and  Hunting- 
ton urged  this  right  in  1871  and  when  Blake  and 
Mackenzie  pressed  it  ten  years  later.  Macdonald 
opposed  such  a  demand  as  equivalent  to  an  effort 


>     >1 


ii  A 
■I'    i 


i    1 

I      'i 


IM  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

for  independence.  Yet  he  himself  was  compelled 
to  change  his  conservative  attitude.  After  18T7 
Canada  ceased  to  be  bound  by  commercial  treaties 
made  by  the  United  Kingdom,  unless  it  expressly 
desired  to  be  included.  In  1879  Gait  was  sent 
to  Europe  to  negotiate  Canadian  trade  agreements 
with  France  and  Spain;  and  in  the  next  decade 
Tupper  carried  negotiations  with  France  to  a  suc- 
cessful conclusion,  though  the  treaty  was  for- 
mally concluded  between  France  and  Britain. 
By  1891  the  Canadian  Parliament  could  assert 
with  truth  that  "the  self-governing  colonies  are 
recognized  as  possessing  the  right  to  define  their 
respective  fiscal  relations  to  all  countries."  But 
Canada  as  yet  took  no  step  toward  assuming  a 
share  in  her  own  naval  defense,  though  the  Aus- 
tralasian colonies  made  a  beginning,  along  colonial 
rather  than  national  lines,  by  making  a  money 
contribution  to  the  British  navy. 

The  second  task  confronting  the  policy  of  im- 
perial cooperation  was  a  harder  one.  For  a  part- 
nership between  colony  and  mother  country  there 
were  no  precedents.  Centralized  empires  there  had 
been;  colonies  there  had  been  which  had  grown  in- 
to independent  states;  but  there  was  no  instance 
of  an  empire  ceasing  to  be  an  empire,  of  colonies 


THE  DAYS  OF  TRIAL  109 

becoming  self-governing  sUtes  and  then  turning 
to  closer  and  cooperative  union  with  one  another 
and  with  the  mother  country. 

Along  tfaii  unblazed  trail  two  important  ad- 
vances were  made.    The  initiative  in  the  first  came 
from  Canada.    In  1880  a  High  Commissioner  was 
appomted  to  represent  Canada  in  London.    The 
appointment  of  Sir  Alexander  Gait  and  the  policy 
which  It  mvolved  were  significant.    The  Governor- 
General  had  ceased  to  be  a  real  power;  he  was  be- 
commg  the  representative  not  of  the  British  Gov- 
ernment but  of  the  King;  and.  like  the  King,  he 
governed  by  the  advice  of  the  responsible  minis- 
ters in  the  land  where  he  resided.    His  place  as 
the  link  between  the  Government  of  Canada  and 
the  Government  of  Britain  was  now  taken  in  part 
by  the  High  Commissioner.      The  relationship  of 
Oinada  to  the  United  Kingdom  was  becoming  one 
of  equahty  not  of  subordination. 

The  initiative  in  the  second  step  came  from 
Britam,  though  Canada's  leaders  gave  the  move- 
ment Its  final  direction.  Imperial  federationists 
urged  Lord  Salisbury  to  summon  a  conference  of 
the  colonies  to  discuss  the  question  they  had  at 
heart.  Salisbury  doubted  the  wisdom  of  such  a 
policy  but  agreed  in  1887  to  call  a  conference  to 


9   ■)i 
,    <1 


J  ■''♦I 

i  4 


(i'-t 


IM  THE  CANADUN  DOMINION 

diicuM  matter*  of  trade  and  defeiue.  Every  •elf- 
governing  colony  sent  reprewsntative*  to  thU  firrt 
Colonial  Conference;  but  little  immediate  fruit 
came  of  iU  leuioni.  In  1894  a  second  Conference 
was  held  at  OtUwa,  mainly  to  discuss  intercolonial 
preferential  trade.  Only  a  beginning  had.  been 
made,  but  already  the  Conferences  were  coming  to 
be  regarded  as  meetings  of  independent  govern- 
ments and  not,  as  the  federationists  had  hoped, 
the  germ  of  a  single  dominating  new  government. 
The  Imperial  Federation  League  began  to  realize 
that  it  was  making  little  progress  and  dissolved 
inlSOS. 

Preferential  trade  was  the  alternative  path  to 
imperial  federation.  Macdonald  had  urged  it  in 
1879  when  he  found  British  resentment  strong 
against  his  new  tariff.  Again,  ten  years  later,  when 
reciprocity  with  the  United  Stetes  was  finding 
favor  in  Canada,  imperialists  urged  the  counter- 
claims of  a  policy  of  imperial  reciprocity,  of  special 
tariff  privileges  to  other  parts  of  the  Empire.  Ihe 
stumblingblock  in  the  way  of  such  a  policy  was 
England's  adherence  to  free  trade.  For  the  pro- 
tectionist colonies  preference  would  mean  only  a 
reduction  of  an  existing  tariff.  For  the  United 
Kingdom,  however,  it  would  mean  a  complete 


THE  DAYS  OP  TRUL  im 

revefMl  of  6m1  policy  ud  the  abuidonineiit  of  fm 
tMde  for  protection  in  order  to  make  diwriminii- 
tion  pouible.    Pew  Engli.hmen  believed  such  • 
reverwl  powible.  though  every  trade  deprewion  re- 
vived  talk  of  "fair  trade"  or  taril!.  for  bargaining 
purpoie*.    A  further  obstacle  to  preferential  trade 
lay  m  the  existence  of  treaties  with  Belgium  and 
Germany,  concluded  in  the  sixties,  assuring  them 
*II  tariff  privileges  granted  by  any  British  colony 
to  Great  Britain  or  to  sister  colonies.    In  1892  the 
Liberal  Opposition  in  Canada  indicated  the  line 
upon  which  action  was  eventually  to  be  taken  by 
urging  a  resolution  in  fa-or  of  granting  an  imme- 
diate and  unconditional  preference  on  British  goods 
as  a  step  toward  freer  trade  and  in  the  interest  of 
the  Canadian  consumer. 

Little  came  of  looking  either  to  London  or  to 
Washington.  Until  the  middle  nineties  Canada 
1  ~  med  commercially  stagnant  and  politically 
distracted.  Then  came  a  change  of  heart  and  a 
change  of  policy.  The  Dominion  realized  at  last 
that  It  must  work  out  its  own  salvation. 

In  March.  1801.  Sir  John  Macdonald  was  re- 
turned to  office  for  the  sixth  time  since  Confedera- 
tion, but  he  was  not  destined  to  enjoy  power  long. 
The  wmter  campaign  had  been  too  much  for  his 


i'i 


11 


ise 


THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 


weskened  constitution,  and  he  died  on  June  6, 
1891.  No  man  had  been  more  hated  by  his  politi- 
cal opponents,  no  man  more  loved  by  his  political 
followers.  Today  the  hatred  has  long  since  died, 
and  the  memory  of  Sir  John  Macdonald  has  be- 
come the  common  pride  of  Canadians  of  every 
party,  race,  and  creed.  He  had  done  much  to 
lower  the  level  of  Canadian  politics;  but  this  fault 
was  forgiven  when  men  remembered  his  unfailing 
courage  and  confidence,  his  constructive  vision 
and  fertility  of  resource,  his  deep  and  unquestioned 
devotion  to  his  country. 

The  Conservative  party  had  with  difficulty  sur- 
vived the  last  election.  Deprived  of  the  leader 
who  for  so  long  had  been  half  its  force,  the  party 
could  not  long  delay  its  break-up.  No  one  could 
be  found  to  fill  Macdonald's  place.  The  helm  was 
taken  in  turn  by  J.  J.  C.  Abbott,  "the  confidential 
family  lawyer  of  the  party,"  by  Sir  John  Thomp- 
son, solid  and  efficient  though  lacking  in  imagina- 
tion, and  by  Sir  Mackenzie  Bowell,  an  Ontario 
veteran.  Abbott  was  forced  to  resign  because  of 
ill  health;  Thomp.<!on  died  in  office;  and  Bowell 
was  forced  out  by  a  revolt  within  the  party. 
Sir  Charles  Tupper,  then  High  Commissioner  in 
London,  was  summonef*  to  take  up  the  difficult 


THE  DAYS  OP  TBIAL  i„ 

t«k.    Butit  proved  too  g«.t  for  even  hi.  figbting 
energy.    The  part,   u      divided.    Com  c^^ 
tion  m  the  .wwdin^f  oi  public  contr«:t.  h«i  been 
bought  to  light.    The  fam,er,  were  demand^g 
.  lower  tanff.     The  leader  of  the  Opposition  w  J 
proving  to  have  .11  the  astuteness  and  the  mastery 
of  h«  party  which  had  marked  Macdonald  and  a 
courage  m  his  convictions  which  promised  well. 
Drfeat  seemed  inevitable  unless  a  new  issue  which 
had  mvaded  federal  politics,  the  Manitoba  school 
question,  should  prove  more  dangerous  to  the 
Opposit^n  than  to  the  forces  of  the  Government. 
The  M«utob.  school  question  was  an  echo  of 
the  racial  and  religious  strife  which  followed  the 
execution  of  Kiel  and  in  which  the  Jesuits'  Es- 
tates controversy  was  an  episode.     In  the  early 
days  of  the  province,  when  it  was  still  uncertain 
which  religion  would  be  dominant  among  the 
•ettlers.  a  system  of  state-aided  denominational 
«;hools  had  been  established.    In  1890  the  Mani- 
toba Government  swept  this  system  away  and  re- 
placed It  by  a  single  system  of  non-sectarian  and 
sUte-supported  schools  which  were  practically  the 
jame^  the  old  Protestant  schools.    Any  Roman 
Catholic  who  did  not  wish  to  send  his  children  to 
such  a  school  was  thus  compelled  to  pay  for  the 


!  1 


I    A 

J  •-'♦I 


! 


r  tl 


198  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

maintenance  of  a  parochial  school  as  well  as  to 
pay  taxes  for  the  public  schools.  A  provision  of 
the  Confederation  Act,  inserted  at  the  wish  of  the 
Protestant  minority  in  Quebec,  safeguarded  the 
educational  privileges  of  religious  minorities.  A 
somewhat  similar  clause  had  been  inserted  in  the 
Manitoba  Act  of  1870.  To  this  protection  the 
Manitoba  minority  now  appealed.  The  courts 
held  that  the  province  had  the  right  to  pass  the 
law  but  also  that  the  Dominion  Government 
had  the  constitutional  right  to  pass  remedial  legis- 
lation restoring  in  some  measure  the  prr  ileges 
taken  away.  The  issue  was  thus  forced  into 
federal  politics. 

A  curious  situation  then  developed.  The  leader 
of  the  Government,  Sir  Mackenzie  Bowell,  was  a 
prominent  Orangeman.  The  leader  of  the  Opposi- 
tion, Wilfrid  Laurier,  was  a  Roman  Catholic.  The 
Government,  after  a  vain  attempt  to  induce  the 
province  to  amend  its  measure,  decided  to  pass  a 
remedial  act  compelling  it  to  restore  to  the  Roman 
Catholics  their  rights.  The  policy  of  the  Oppo- 
sition leader  was  awaited  with  keen  expectancy. 
Strong  pressure  was  brought  upon  Laurier  by 
the  Roman  Catholic  hierarchy  of  Quebec.  Most 
men  expected  a  temporizing  compromise.     Yet 


THE  DAYS  OF  TRIAL 


199 


the  leader  of  the  Opposition  came  out  strongly 
and  flatly  against  the  Government's  measure.  He 
agreed  that  a  wrong  had  been  done  but  insisted 
that  compulsion  could  not  right  it  and  promised 
that,  if  in  power,  he  would  follow  the  path  of  con- 
ciliation. At  once  all  the  wrath  of  the  hierarchy 
was  unloosed  upon  him,  and  all  its  influence  was 
thrown  to  the  support  of  the  Government.  Yet 
when  the  Liberals  blocked  the  Remedial  Bill  by  ob- 
structing debate  until  the  term  of  Parliament  ex- 
pired, and  forced  an  election  on  this  issue  in  the 
summer  of  1896,  Quebec  gave  a  big  majority  to 
Laurier,  while  Manitoba  stood  behind  the  party 
which  had  tried  to  coerce  it.  The  country  over, 
the  Liberals  had  gained  a  decisive  majority.  The 
day  of  new  leaders  and  a  new  policy  had  dawned 
at  last. 


i 


CHAPTER  V 


THE  YEARS  OF  FUUILMENT 


Wilfrid  Laubier  was  summoned  to  form  his  first 
Cabinet  in  July,  1896.  For  eighteen  years  previous 
to  that  time  the  Liberals  had  sat  in  what  one  of 
their  number  used  to  call  "the  cold  shades  of  Op- 
position. "  For  half  of  that  term  Laurier  had  been 
leader  of  the  party,  confined  to  the  negative  task 
of  watching  and  criticizing  the  administration  of 
his  great  predecessor  and  of  the  four  premiers  who 
followed  in  almost  as  many  years.  Now  he  was 
called  to  constructive  tasks.  Fortune  favored  him 
by  bringing  him  to  power  at  the  very  turn  of  the 
tide;  but  he  justified  fortune's  favor  by  so  steering 
the  ship  of  state  as  to  take  full  advantage  of  wind 
and  current.  Through  four  Parliaments,  through 
fifteen  years  of  oflSce,  through  the  time  of  fruition 
of  so  many  long-deferred  hopes,  he  was  to  guide 
the  destinies  of  the  nation. 

Laurier  began  his  work  by  calUng  to  his  Cabinet 


THE  YEARS  OF  FULFILMENT         aoi 

not  merely  the  party  leaders  in  the  federal  arena 
but  four  of  the  outstanding  provincial  Liberals  — 
Oliver  Mowat,  Premier  of  Ontario,  William  S. 
Fielding,  Premier  of  Nova  Scotia,  Andrew  G.  Blair, 
Premier  of  New  Brunswick,  and,  a  few  months 
later,  Clifford  Sifton  of  Manitoba.  The  Ministry 
was  the  strangest  in  individual  capacity  that  the 
Dominion  had  yet  possessed.  The  prestige  of 
the  provincial  leaders,  all  men  of  long  experience 
and  tested  shrewdness,  strengthened  the  Admin- 
istration in  quarters  where  it  otherwise  would 
have  been  weak,  for  there  had  been  many  who 
doubted  whether  the  untried  Liberal  party  could 
provide  capable  administrators.  There  bad  also 
been  many  who  doubted  the  expediency  of  making 
Prime  Minister  a  French-Canadian  Catholic.  Such 
doubters  were  reassured  by  the  presence  of  Mowat 
and  Fielding,  until  the  Prime  Minister  himself  had 
proved  the  wisdom  of  the  choice.  There  were 
others  who  admitted  Laurier's  personal  charm 
and  grace  but  doubted  whether  he  had  the  po- 
litical strength  to  control  a  party  of  conflicting 
elements  and  to  govern  a  country  where  different 
race  and  diverging  religious  and  sectional  interests 
set  men  at  odds.  Here  again  time  proved  such 
fears  to  be  groimdless.    Long  before  Laurier's  long 


n 

I  if 


if 


If 


802  THE  CANADUN  DOMINION 

term  of  office  had  ended,  any  distrust  was  trans- 
formed into  the  charge  of  his  opponents  that  he 
played  the  dictator.  His  courtly  manners  were 
found  not  to  hide  weakness  but  to  cover  strength. 

The  first  task  of  the  new  Government  was  to 
settle  the  Manitoba  school  question.  Negotiations 
which  were  at  once  begun  with  the  provincial 
Government  were  doubtless  made  easier  by  the 
fact  that  the  same  party  was  in  power  at  Ottawa 
and  at  Winnipeg,  but  it  was  not  this  fact  alone 
which  brought  agreement.  The  Laurier  Govern- 
ment, imlike  its  predecessor,  did  not  insist  on  the 
restoration  of  separate  schools.  It  accepted  a 
compromise  which  retained  the  single  system  of 
public  schools,  but  which  provided  religious  teach- 
ing in  the  last  half  hour  of  school  and,  where  num- 
bers warranted,  a  teacher  of  the  same  faith  as  the 
pupils.  The  compromise  was  ^'iolently  denounced 
by  the  Roman  Catholic  hierarchy  but,  except  in 
two  cities,  where  parochial  schools  were  set  up,  it 
was  accepted  by  the  laity. 

With  this  thorny  question  out  of  the  way,  the 
Government  turned  to  what  it  recognized  as  its 
greatest  task,  the  promotion  of  the  country's 
^-Qaterial  prosperity.  For  years  industry  had  been 
at  a  standstill.    Exports  and  imports  had  ceased 


THE  YEARS  OF  FULFILMENT  ms 
to  expand;  railway  building  had  halted;  emigrants 
outnumbered  immigrants.  The  West,  the  centr 
of  so  many  hopes,  the  object  of  so  many  sacrifices, 
had  not  proved  the  El  Dorado  so  eagerly  sought 
by  fortune  hunters  and  home  builders.  There 
were  little  over  two  hundred  thousand  white  men 
west  of  the  Great  Lakes.  Homesteads  had  been 
oflfered  freely;  but  in  1896  only  eighteen  hundred 
were  taken  up,  and  less  than  a  third  of  these  by 
Canadians  from  the  East.  The  stock  of  the  Cana- 
dian Pacific  was  selling  at  fifty.  All  but  a  few  had 
begun  to  lose  faith  in  the  promise  of  the  West. 

Then  suddenly  a  change  came.  The  failure  of 
the  West  to  lure  pioneers  was  not  due  to  poverty 
of  soil  or  lack  of  natural  riches:  its  resources  were 
greater  than  the  most  reckless  orator  had  dreamed. 
It  was  merely  that  iU  time  had  not  come  and  that 
the  men  in  charge  of  the  country's  affairs  had  not 
thrown  enough  energy  into  the  task  of  speeding 
the  coming  of  that  time.  No  fortune  worked 
with  Canada,  not  against  it.  The  long  and  steady 
fall  of  prices,  and  particularly  of  the  prices  of  farm 
products,  ended;  and  a  rapid  rise  began  to  make 
farming  pay  once  more.  The  good  free  lands  of  the 
United  States  had  nearly  all  been  taken  up.  Can- 
ada's West  was  now  the  last  great  reserve  of 


KH     THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

free  and  fertile  land.  Improvements  in  farming 
methods  made  it  possible  to  cope  with  the  peculiar 
problems  of  prairie  husbandry.  British  capital, 
moreover,  no  longer  found  so  ready  an  outlet  in 
the  United  States,  which  was  now  financing  its 
own  development;  and  it  had  suffered  severe  losses 
in  Argentine  smashes  and  Australian  droughts. 
Capital,  therefore,  was  free  to  turn  to  Canada. 

But  it  was  not  enough  merely  to  have  the  re- 
sources; it  was  essential  to  display  them  and  to 
disclose  their  value.  Canada  needed  millions  of 
men  of  the  right  stock,  and  fortunately  there  were 
millions  who  needed  Canada.  The  work  of  the 
Government  was  to  put  the  facts  before  these  po- 
tential settlers.  The  new  Minister  of  the  Interior, 
Clifford  Sifton,  himself  a  western  man,  at  once 
began  an  immigration  campaign  which  has  never 
been  equaled  in  any  country  for  vigor  and  practi- 
cal eflSciency.  Canada  had  hitherto  received  few 
settlers  direct  from  the  Continent.  Western  Eu- 
rope was  now  prosperous,  and  emigrants  were  few. 
But  eastern  Eiwope  was  in  a  ferment,  and  thou- 
sands were  ready  to  swarm  to  new  homes  overseas. 
The  activities  of  a  subsidized  immigration  agency, 
the  North  Atlantic  Trading  Company,  brought 
great  numbers  of    these   peoples.     Foremost  in 


THE  YEARS  OP  FULFILMENT         «05 

nun.be«  were  the  Ruthenian.  from  Galicia.   Most 
<h.tmrt.ve  were  the  Doukhobo»  or  Spirit  WrI 
«ers  of  Southern  Hussia.  about  ten  thousand" 
whom  were  brought  to  Canada  at  the  instance  rf 
Tolstoy  and  some  English  Quakers  to  escape^ 
aecu  .on  for  their  refusal  to  undertalTm^i^ 
•ervice.    The  religious  fanaticism  of  the  DouS^ 
bors  parfcularly  when  i.  took  the  form  of^d 
wmter  pJgnmages  in  nature's  garb,  and  the  clan- 
n^hness  of  the  Ruthenians.  who  settled  m  lud 
blocks,  gave  r«e  to  many  problem,  of  government 
andaas.     l,«on  which  taught  Canadl  t  W 
-do„  of  .nvating  immigration  from  eastern  or 
southern  Europe.     Ruthenians  and  Poles,  how- 

l^Lv'; ".' """'^ '" "^"'^ -  --t- lands. 
Jew«h  Poland  sent  its  thousands  who  settled  in 
^e  l„ger  cjt.es,  until  Montreal  had  more  Jews 

thear  Easter  hohdaysm  Passover.  Italian  navvies 
jne  also  by  the  thousands,  but  mainly  as  birds 
of  passage;  and  Greeks  and  men  from  the  Balkan 
States  were  hmited  in  numbers.  Of  the  three 
^.on  >mm,grant8  who  came  to  Canada  from  the 
begmmng  of  the  centu^  to  the  outbreak  of  Te 
war.  some  eight  hundred   thousand  came  from 


m 


808  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

continental  Europe,  and  of  these  the  Ruthe- 
niana,  Jews,  Italians,  and  Scandinavians  were  the 
most  numerous. 

It  was  in  the  United  States  that  Canada  made 
the  greatest  efforts  to  obtain  settlers  and  that  she 
achieved  the  most  striking  success.  Beginning 
in  1897  advertisements  were  placed  in  five  or  six 
thousand  American  farm  and  weekly  newspapers. 
Booklets  were  distributed  by  the  million.  Hun- 
dreds of  farmer  delegates  were  given  free  tripe 
through  the  promised  land.  Agents  were  ap- 
pointed in  each  likely  State,  with  sub-agents  who 
were  paid  a  bonus  on  every  actual  settler.  The 
first  settlers  sent  back  word  of  limitless  land  to  be 
had  for  a  song,  and  of  No.  1  Northern  Wheat  that 
ran  thirty  or  forty  bushels  to  the  acre.  Soon  immi- 
gration from  the  States  began;  the  trickle  became 
a  trek;  the  trek,  a  stampede.  In  1896  the  immi- 
grants from  the  United  States  to  Canada  had  been 
so  few  as  not  to  be  recorded;  in  1897  there  were 
8000;  in  1899,  12,000;  in  the  fiscal  year  1908-03, 
60,000;  and  in  1912-13,  139,000.  The  new  immi- 
grants proved  to  be  the  best  of  settlers;  nearly 
all  were  progressive  farmers  experienced  in  western 
methods  and  possessed  of  capital.  The  counter- 
movement  from  Canada  to  the  United  States  never 


THE  YEABS  OP  PUIPILMENT         g07 
wholly  ceased,  but  it  slackened  and  was  much  more 
than  offset  by  this  northward  rush.   Nothing  so 
helped  to  confirm  Canadian  confidence  in  their 
own  land  and  to  make  the  outside  world  share 
this  high  estimate  as  this  unimpeachable  evidence 
from  over  a  million  American  newcomers  who  found 
in  Canada,  between  1897  and  1914.  greater  op- 
portuniUes  than  even  the  United  States  could 
offer.    The  Ministry  then  carried  ita  propaganda 
to  Great  Britain.   Newspapers,  schools,  exhibiUons 
were  used  in  ways  which  startled  the  stolid  Eng- 
lishman  into  attention.    Circumstances  played  in- 
to the  hands  of  the  propagandists,  who  took  ad- 
vantage of  the  flow  of  United  States  settlers  into 
the  West,  the  Klondike  gold  fields  rush,  the  pres- 
ence of  Laurier  at  the  Jubilee  festivities  at  London 
in  1897,  Canada's  share  in  the  Boer  War.    British 
immigrants  rose  to  £0,000  in  1903-04,  to  120,000 
in  1907-08,  and  to  150,000  in  1912-13.    From 
1897  to  the  outbreak  of  the  war  over  1,100,000 
Britishers  came  to  Canada.    Three  out  of  four 
were  English,  the  rest  mainly  Scotch;  the  Irish, 
who  once  had  come  in  tens  of  thousands  and  whose 
descendants  still  formed  the  largest  element  in 
the  English-speaking  peoples  of  Canada,  now  sent 
only  one  man  for  every  twelve  from  England. 


a08  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

The  gates  of  Canadian  immigration,  however, 
were  not  thrown  open  to  all  comers.  The  criminal, 
the  insane  and  feeble-minded,  the  diseased,  and 
others  likely  to  become  public  charges,  were  barred 
altogether  or  allowed  to  remain  provisionally, 
subject  to  deportation  within  three  years.  Immi- 
grants sent  out  by  British  charitable  societies  were 
subjected,  after  1008,  to  rigid  inspection  before 
leaving  England.  No  immigrant  was  admitted  with- 
out su£Scient  money  in  his  purse  to  tide  over  the 
first  few  weeks,  unless  he  were  going  to  farm 
work  or  responsible  relatives.  Asiatics  were  re- 
stricted by  special  regulations.  Steadily  the  bars 
were  raised  higher. 

Not  all  the  3,000,000  who  came  to  Canada  be- 
tween 1897  and  1914  remained.  Many  drifted 
across  the  border ;  many  returned  to  their  old  homes, 
their  dreams  fulfilled  or  shattered;  yet  the  vast 
majority  remained.  Never  had  any  country  so 
great  a  task  of  assimilation  as  faced  Canada,  with 
3,000,000  pouring  into  a  country  of  5,000,000  in  a 
dozen  years.  Fortunately  the  great  bulk  of  the 
newcomers  were  of  the  old  stocks. 

Closely  linked  with  immigration  in  promoting 
the  prosperity  of  the  country  were  the  land  policy 
and  the  nulway  policy  of  the  Administration.   The 


THE  YEARS  OF  FULFILMENT         m 
syitem  of  granting  free  homesteads  to  setUen  was 
continued  on  an  even  more  generous  scale.    The 
1800  entries  for  homesteads  in  1896  had  become 
40.000  ten  years  later.   In  1806  land  equal  in  area 
to  Massachusetts  and  Delaware  was  given  away 
in  1908  a  Wales,  in  1909  five  Prince  Edward  Islands, 
and  in  1910  and  1911  a  Belgium,  a  Netherlands, 
and  two  Montenegros  passed  from  the  state  to 
the  settler.    Unfortunately  not  every  homesteader 
became  an  active  farmer,  and  production,  thou^ 
mounting  fast,  could  not  keep  pace  with  speculaUon. 
Railway  building  had  almost  ceased  after  the 
completion  of  the  Canadian  Pacific  system.    Now 
it  revived  on  a  greater  scale  than  ever  before.    In 
the  twenty  years  after  1896  the  miles  in  operation 
grew  from  16.000  to  ne«rly  40,000.  Two  new  trans- 
MntiL-entals  were  added,  and  the  older  roads  took 
on  a  new  lease  of  life.    At  the  end  of  this  period  of 
expansion,  only  the  United  Sutes,  Germany,  and 
Russia  had  railroad  mileage  exceeding  that  of  Can- 
ada.   Much  of  the  building  was  premature  or  du- 
plicated other  roads.     The  scramble  for  sUte  aid. 
federal  and  provincial,  haa  demoralized  Canadian 
politics.    A  large  part  of  the  notes  the  country 
rashly  backed,  by  the  policy  of  guaranteeing  bond 
issues,  were  in  time  presented  for  payment.    Yet 


I". 


no  IHE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

the  ntilway  polidc*  of  the  period  were  broMlly  jii»- 
tified.  New  country  wm  opened  to  lettlen;  out- 
let! to  the  sea  were  provided;  capital  was  obtained 
in  the  yean  when  it  was  still  abundant  and  cheap; 
the  whole  industry  of  the  country  was  stimulated; 
East  was  bound  closer  to  West  and  depth  was  added 
to  length.' 

The  opening  of  the  West  brought  new  pros- 
perity to  every  comer  of  the  East.  Factories  found 
growing  markets;  banlu  multiplied  branches  and 
business;  exports  mounted  fast  and  imports  faster; 
closer  relations  were  formed  with  London  and  New 
York  financial  interests;  mushroom  millionaires, 
country  clubs,  city  slums,  suburban  subdivisions, 
land  booms,  grafting  aldermen,  and  all  the  appara- 
tus of  an  advanced  civilization  grew  apace.  A  new 
self-confidence  became  the  dominant  note  alike  of 
private  business  and  of  public  policy. 

With  industrial  prosperity,  political  unity  be- 
came assured.  Canada  became  more  and  more  a 
name  of  which  all  her  sons  were  proud.   Expansion 


■  During  th«  Gmt  War  it  becuie  necemiy  for  the  Fedcnl  Got- 
emment  to  take  over  both  the  Natioiial  Thuucootinenta],  runnmg 
bom  Moncton  in  New  Bnuuwick  to  Winnipeg,  and  tlie  Caoadiao 
Northern,  running  from  ocean  to  ocean,  and  to  incorporate  hoth, 
along  with  the  Intercolonial,  in  the  Canadian  National  Baihrayi,  a 
qntcm  fourteen  thouMUtd  milee  in  length. 


THE  YKARS  OP  FULFILMENT        n, 

the  K.t  of  Quud.  when  Vweouver  .nd  Winni- 

"7  *"""^''  r'"»"«'  u„de«tandi„g.  though  cler- 

aUWe.  V,.  «,„,ht  «,ety  for  their  Chu«.h 

Iv  V"i"".        '*'  "^P'''  ™P«"«'«t,  who 

Ar.g|.>-S«x„„ racial Ue.. and politici«n.of  the  baJ« 
-1  C.P  cum,  «ce  prejudice  for  their  own  gain, 
opened  nfu  u,  a  «,ciety  already  «,an,ed  by  dfffer- 
ence.  o  language  and  creed.  In  the  West  unity 
w«  .till  harder  to  secure,  for  n.en  of  all  counW« 
and  of  none  poured  into  a  land  .Ull  i„  the  shaping. 

W«t  and  of  the  manufacturing,  protectionist  East 

m«lefor,nct.o„.  Fortunately at„,ngtiesheld East 
-dWesttogether.  Eastern  Canadians  or  their  son. 
«Ied  most  of  the  strategic  posts  in  Government 

W«t.  Transcontmental  railways,  chartered  banks 
wi^  branches  and  interests  in  every  province 
pohtical  parties  organizing  their  forees  from  coast 
to  coast,  played  their  part.  Much  had  been 
accomplished:  but  much  remained  to  be  done 


il 


%. 


SIS  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

With  this  background  of  rapid  industrial  de- 
vdopment  and  growing  national  unity,  Canada's 
relations  with  the  Empire,  with  her  sister  democ- 
racy across  the  border,  and  ?dth  foreign  states, 
took  on  new  importance  and  divided  interest  with 
the  changes  in  her  internal  affairs. 

From  being  a  state  wherein  the  mother  country 
exercised  control  and  the  colonies  yielded  obedience 
the  Empire  was  rapidly  being  transformed  into  a 
free  and  equal  partnership  of  independent  com- 
monwealths under  one  king.  Out  of  the  clash  of 
rival  theories  and  conflicting  interests  a  new  ideal 
and  a  new  reality  had  developed.  The  policy  of 
imperial  coSperation  —  the  policy  whereby  each 
great  colony  became  independent  of  outside  con- 
trol but  voluntarily  acted  in  concert  with  the 
mother  country  and  the  sister  states  on  matters 
of  common  concern  —  sought  to  reconcile  liberty 
and  unity,  nationhood  and  empire,  to  unite  what 
was  most  practicable  in  the  aims  of  the  advocates 
of  independence  and  the  advocates  of  imperial 
federation.  The  movement  developed  unevenly. 
At  the  outbreak  of  the  Great  War,  it  was  still  in- 
complete. The  ideal  was  not  always  clearly  or 
consciously  held  in  the  Empire  itself  and  was 
wholly  ignored  or  misunderstood  in  Europe  and 


THE  YEARS  OP  FULFILMENT  «is 
even  in  the  United  States.  Yet  in  twenty  years' 
space  It  had  become  dominant  in  practice  and 
theory  and  had  built  up  a  new  type  of  political 
organization,  a  virtual  league  of  nations,  fruitful 
for  the  future  ordering  of  the  worid. 

The  three  fields  in  which  this  new  policy  was 
worked  out  were  trade,  defense,  and  political  or- 
ganization.   Canada  had  asserted  her  right  to  con- 
trol her  tariff  and  commercial  treaty  relations  as 
she  pleased.    Now  she  used  this  freedom  to  offer 
without  asking  any  return  in  kind,  tariff  privileged 
to  the  mother  country.   In  the  first  budget  brought 
down  by  the  Minister  of  Finance  in  the  Laurier 
Cabinet,  William  S.  Fielding,  a  reduction,  by  in- 
stalments, of  twenty-five  per  cent  in  tariff  duties 
was  offered  to  all  countries  with  rates  as  low  as 
Canada's -that  is.  to  the  United  Kingdom  and 
possibly  to  the  Netherlands  and  New  South  Wales 
The  reduction  was  meant  both  as  a  fulfilment  of 
the  Liberal  party's  free  trade  pledges  and  as  a 
token  of  filial  good  will  to  Britain.    It  was  soon 
found  that  Belgium  and  Germany,  by  virtue  of 
their  special  treaty  rights,  would  claim  the  same 
privileges  as  Britain,  and  that  all  other  countries 
with  most  favored  nation  clause,  could  then  de- 
mand the  same  rates.    Thi,  might  «rve  the  free 


«M  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

trade  um.  of  the  Fielding  tariff  but  would  block 
Its  imperial  purpose.  If  this  purpose  was  to  be 
achieved,  these  treaties  must  be  denounced.  To 
effect  this  was  one  of  the  tasks  Laurier  undertook 
in  his  first  visit  to  England  in  1897. 

The  Diamond  Jubilee  of  Queen  Victoria,  cele- 
brating the  sixtieth  anniversary  of  her  reign,  waa 
made  the  occasion  for  holding  the  third  Colonial 
Conference.    It  was  attended  by  the  Premiers  of 
aU  the  colonies.    Among  them  Wilfrid  Laurier,  or 
Sir  Wilfrid  as  he  now  became,  stood  easily  pre- 
eminent.    In  the  Jubilee  festivities,  among  the 
crowds  in  London  streeU  and  the  gatherings  in 
court  and  council,  his  picturesque  and  courtly 
figure,  his  unmistakable  note  of  distinction,  his 
silvery  eloquence,  and,  not  least,  the  fact  that  this 
ruler  of  the  greatest  of  England's  colonies  was 
wholly  of  French  blood,  made  him  the  lion  of  the 
hour.    In  the  Colonial  Conference,  presided  over 
by  Joseph  Chamberlain,  the  new  Colonial  Secre- 
tary. Laurier  aphieved  his  immediate  purpose. 
The  British  Government  agreed  to  denounce  the 
Belgian  and  German  treaties,  now  that  the  pref- 
erence granted  her  came  as  a  free  gift  and  not  as 
part  of  a  bargain  which  involved  Britain's  aban- 
donment of  free  trade.    Tile  other  Premiers  agreed 


THE  YEARS  OF  FULFILMENT  215 

to  coMider  whether  Canada's  preferential  tariff 
pohcy  could  be  followed.     Chamberlain  in  vain 
urged  defense  and  political  policies  designed  to 
centralize  power  in  London.    He  praised  the  ac- 
tion of  the  Australian  colonies  in  contributing 
money  to  the  British  navy  but  could  get  no  promise 
of  similar  action  from  the  others.    He  urged  the 
need  of  setting  up  in  London  an  imperial  council, 
mth  power  somewhat  more  than  advisory  and 
hkely  "to  develop  into  something  still  greater," 
but  for  this  scheme  he  elicited  little  support.   After 
the  Conference  Sir  Wilfrid  visited  France  and  in 
ringing  speeches  in  Paris  did  much  to  pave  the  way 
for  the  good  understanding  which  later  developed 
into  the  entente  cordiale. 

The  glitter  and  parade  of  the  Jubilee  festivities 
soon  gave  way  to  a  sterner  phase  of  empire  For 
years  South  Africa  had  been  in  ferment  owing  to 
the  conflicting  interests  of  narrow,  fanatical,  often 
corrupt  Boer  leaders,  greedy  Anglo-Jewish  min- 
ing magnates,  and  British  statesmen  -  Rhodes. 
Mihier,  Chamberlain  -  dominated  by  the  impe^ 
nal  idea  and  eager  for  an  "all-red"  South  Africa. 
Eventually  an  impasse  was  reached  over  the  ques- 
tion  of  the  rights  and  privileges  of  British  subjecU 
m  the  Transvaal  Republic.    On  October  9,  1899, 


f 


«1«  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

President  KrUger  issued   his   fateful  ultimatum 
and  war  began. 

What  would  be  Canada's  attitude  toward  this 
imperial  problem?    She  had  never  before  taken 
part  m  an  overseas  war.    Neither  her  own  safety 
nor  the  safety  of  the  mother  country  was  con- 
sidered to  be  at  sUke.    Yet  war  had  not  been  for- 
maUy  declared  before  a  demand  arose  among  Cana- 
dians that  their  country  should  take  a  hand  in  res- 
cuing the  victims  of  Boer  tyranny.   The  Venezuela 
mcdent  and  the  recent  Jubilee  ceremonies  had 
famied  imperialist  sentiment.    The  growing  pros- 
perity was  increasing  national  pride  and  making 
many  eager  to  abandon  the  attitude  of  colonial 
dependence  in  foreign  affairs.    The  desire  to  emu- 
ate  the  United  SUtes,  which  had  just  won  more  or 
less  glory  in  its  little  war  with  Spain,  had  its  in- 
fluence m  some  quarters.    Belief  in  the  justice  of 
the  British  cause  was  practicaUy  universal,  thanks 
to  the  skillful  manipulation  of  the  press  by  the  war 
party  in  South  Africa.    Leading  newspapen,  en- 
couraged the  campaign  for  participation.    Par- 
hament  was  not  in  session,  and  the  Government 
hesitated  to  intervene,  but  the  swelling  tide  of  pub- 
licopmion  soon  warranted  immediate  action.  Three 
days  after  the  declaration  of  war  an  order  in 


THE  YEABS  OP  FULFILMENT         m 
oouncjl  w..  pa«ed  providing  for  a  co„tii«e„t  of 
one   thousand   men.    Other   infantry   batSiona 
Mounted  Rifles,  and  batteries  of  artilry  we^el: 

S'^h  ,r.  ^^'^  «*-*•'-- fonne^DonJd 
Sm,  h  of  he  Canadian  Pacific  syndicate,  by  a  deed 
"Cllmg  feudal  days,  provided  the  funds  to  s^ 

^eCan^.  West.  In  the  last  years  of  the  war 
the  South  African  Constabulao-  drew  many  re- 
cruits from  Canada  AlIt^M  "ny  re- 
■oanaaa.  All  told,  over  seven  thousand 
Canadians  crossed  half  the  world  to  share  in  the 
struggle  on  the  South  African  veldt 

The  Canadian  forces  held  their  own  with  any  in 
^e  ca«.paig„.    The  first  contingent  fought  under 

^  Huberts  m  the  campaign  for  the  relief  of 
W.erley;  and  it  was  two  charges  by  Canadian 
tn^ops.  charges  that  cost  heavily  in  killed  and 
wounded    that  fo.^  the  surrender  of  Gene^I 
Cronje.  brought  to  bay  at  PaaHeberg.    OneCana- 
danbattery  shared  in  the  honorofi^ingthesiege 
l^f  ""■  ■"'''"  Baden-Powell  was  besiegS^ 
»d  b^h  contingents  marched  with  Lord  RoS 
Ir  «  --f-tem  to  Pretoria  and  fought  hard 
and  wel    at  Doomkop  and  in  many  a  LirmT 
Perhaps  the  pohticgenerosityoftheBritish  leaders 
and  thepatrioucbiasof  corespondents  exaggerated 


«M  THE  CANADUN  DOMINION 

theimporUnceof  thedweof  the  CMuuiun  troop, 
in  the  whole  campaign ;  but  their  couwge,  initiative 
and  endurance  were  te.ted  and  proved  beyond  all 
question.  Paardeberg  «a,t  a  thrill  of  pride  and  of 
sorrow  through  Canada. 

The  only  province  which  stood  aloof  from  whole- 
hearted parUcipaUon   in   the   war  was  Quebec 
Many  French  Canadians  had  been  growing  nerv- 
ous over  the  persistent  campaign  of  the  impe- 
rmlists.     They  exhibited  a  certain  unwillingness  to 
take  on  responsibilities,  perhaps  a  survival  of  the 
dependence  which  colonialism  had  bred,  a  dawn- 
ing aspiration  toward  an  independent  place  in  the 
world  s  work,  and  a  disposition  to  draw  tighter  ra- 
cial and  religious  lines  in  order  to  off«it  the  em- 
pha«s  which  imperialists  placed  on  Anglo-Saxon 
toes.    Now  their  sympathies  went  out  to  a  people, 
hke  themselves  an  alien  minority  brought  under 
BrUoh  rule,  and  in  this  attitude  they  werestrongth- 
ened  by  the  almost  unammous  verdict  of  the  neu- 
tral world  against  British  policy.    Laurier  tried  to 
steer  a  middle  course,  but  the  attacks  of  ultni- 
^mperiahstsin  Ontario  and  of  ultra-natiomilists  in 
Quebec,  led  henceforward  by  a  brilliant  and  elo- 
quent grandson  of  Papineau.  Henri  Boumssa.  ham- 
pered him  at  every  turn.    The  South  African  War 


THE  YEABS  OP  FULFILMENT  8,9 

gmye  .  new  unity  to  EngUsb-^peakmg  C«uda 
but  ,t  widened  the  g.p  between  the  French  «d' 
ii-ngliah  sections. 

The  part  which  AustnUia  and  New  Zealand,  like 
Caaada.  had  taken  in  the  war  gave  new  ui^ncy 
to  the  question  of  imperial  relation..    English  im- 
penahsts  were  convinced  that  the  time  was  ripe 
or  a  g«sat  advance  toward  centralization,  and 
they  were  eager  to  crystallize  in  permanent  insti- 
tutions  the  imperial  sentiment  called  forth  by  the 
war.    When,  therefore,  the  fourth  Colonial  Con- 
ference was  summoned  to  meet  in  London  in  1908 
on  the  occasion  of  the  coronation  of  Edward  VH 
Chamberlain  ui^ed  with  all  his  foree  and  keen' 
nessawideprogrammeofcentmlizedacUon.  "Very 
g^t  expectations,"  he  declared  in  his  opening 
address.    W  been  formed  as  to  the  resulu  wS 
n«»y  accrue  from  our  meeting."    The  expectations 
however,  were  doomed  to  disappointment.     He 
and  those  who  shared  his  hopes  had  failed  to  recoK- 
r^  that  the  war  had  called  forth  a  new  motional 
consciousness  in  the  Dominions,  as  the  self-govem- 

mgcoloniesnowcame  to  be  termed,  even  more  than 
ithad  developed  imperial  sentiment.  Inthesmaller 
oolong.  New  Zealand.  Natal.  Cape  of  Good  Hope, 
the  old  attitude  of  colonial  dependence  sur>-iv^ 


MO  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

in  larger  mewure;  but  in  Can«la  and  in  Aiutralia 
now  federated  into  commonwealth,,  national  feel- 
mg  was  uppermost. 

Chamberlain  brought   forward  once  more  hi. 
p«)po«l  for  an  imperial  council,  to  be  advisoiy  at 
fi«t  and  later  to  attain  power  to  tax  and  legidate 
for  the  whole  Empire,  but  he  found  no  support. 
Instead,  the  Conference  itself  was  made  a  more 
permanent  instrument  of  imperial  co^^raUon  by 
a  provi„-on  that  it  should  meet  at  least  eveo-  fow 
years.    The  essential  difference  was  that  the  Con- 
ference was  merely  a  meeting  of  independent  Gov- 
ernments on  an  equal  footing,  each  chiiming  to  be 
-«  much  "His  Majesty's  Government"  as  «.y 
other,   whereas   the  comicil   which   Chamberhun 
urged  m  vain  would  have  been  a  new  Government 
«.pmne  over  .11  the  Empire  and  dominated  by' 
theBnt^h  representatives.   Chamberlain  then  sug- 
'^  "7,'*°*«'^^  -«-  of  defense.  g«nL 
to  the  Bnbsh  navy,  and  the  putting  of  a  defmite 
proportion  of  colonial  militia  at  the  disposal  of 
«.e  Bntish  War  Office  for  over^^  servicTVe 

fr  "'.^f"'"'  P"""^  °«^'''  ^'^^■'  Aus- 
tmha  and  New  Zealand  increased  their  contribu- 
tions for  the  maintenance  of  a  ,q„ad«,n  in  Pa- 
cific waters;  but  Canada  held  back.    The  smaller 


THE  YEABS  OF  FDLnLMENT  m 
coloniei  were  sympathetic  to  the  miUtU  proposal; 
but  Canada  and  Australia  rejected  it  on  the 
grounds  that  it  was  "objectionable  in  principle, 
as  derogating  from  the  powers  of  self-government 
enjoyed  by  them,  and  would  be  calculated  to 
impede  the  general  improvement  in  training  and 
oi^anization  of  their  defense  forces."  Chamber- 
lain's additional  proposal  of  free  trade  within  the 
Empire  and  of  a  common  tariff  against  all  foreign 
countries  found  little  support.  That  each  part  of 
the  Empire  should  control  ita  own  Uriff  and  that 
it  should  make  what  concessions  it  wished  on  Brit- 
ish imports,  either  as  a  part  of  a  reciprocal  bargain 
or  as  a  free  gift,  remained  a  fixed  idea  in  the  minds 
of  the  leaders  of  the  Dominions.  Throughout  the 
sessions  it  was  Laurier  rather  than  Chamberlain 
who  dominated  the  Conference. 

Balked  in  his  desire  to  effect  political  or  miliUry 
centralization,  Cii  amberlain  turned  anew  to  the  pos- 
sibilities of  trade  alliaace.  His  tariff  reform  cnm- 
paign  of  1908,  which  was  a  sequel  to  tho  Colonial 
Conference  of  1902,  proposed  that  OfL-il  Bri'ain 
set  up  a  Uriff,  incidentally  to  protect  hn  o  vii  in- 
dustries and  to  have  matter  for  bargaii^irijj  with 
foreigji  powers,  but  mainly  in  order  to  keep  the 
colonies  within  her  orbit  by  offering  them  special 


I    V. 


M*  THE  CANADIAN  DOSONION 

temu.     In  this  way  the  Empire  would  become 
once  more  »elf-»ufflcient.    The  iMue  thus  thrust 
upon  Great  Britain  and  the  Empire  in  generml  was 
primarily  a  contest  between  fret  traders  and  pro- 
tectionists, not  between  the  supporters  of  coUpera- 
tion  and  the  supporters  of  centralizaUon.    On  this 
basis  the  issue  was  fought  out  in  Great  Britain  and 
resulted  in  the  overwhelming  victory  of  free  trade 
and  the  Liberal  party,  aided  as  they  were  by  the 
popular  reaction  against  the  jingoist  policy  which 
had  culminated  in  the  war.    When  the  fifth  Con- 
ference, now  termed  Imperial  instead  of  Colonial, 
met  in  1907,  there  wa.,  much  impassioned  advocacy 
of  preference  and  protection  on  the  part  of  Alfred 
Deakin  of  Australia  and  Sir  L.  S.  Jameson  of  the 
Cape;  but  the  British  representatives  stuck  to  their 
guns  and,  in  Winston  Churchill's  phrase,  the  door 
remained  "banged,  barred,  and  bolted"  against 
both  policies.    At  this  conference  Laurier  took  the 
ground  that,  while  Canada  would  be  prepared 
to  bargain  preference  for  preference,  the  people  of 
Great  Britain  must  decide  what  fiscal  system  would 
best  serve  their  own  interests.    A  consistent  ad- 
vocate of  home  rule,  he  was  willing,  unlike  some  of 
his  colleagues,  from  the  other  Dominions,  to  let  the 
United  Kingdom  control  its  own  affairs. 


THE  YEABS  OF  FULFILMENT         «, 
W.r.    Now  tie  unbounded  ambition,  „f  Gen„«y 

the  Bnt«h  public  fi„t  became  «,riou«ly  alarmed 
over  the  danger  involved  in  the  le.«=nin/maS 
-per.or.ty  of  the  Br.ti.h  over  the  Gel.„rv; 
The  alarm  was  echoed  throughout  the  Dominion! 
The  W.  challenge  threatened  the  wfety  not 
onlyofthe^othercountrybutofeve^partofl 
Kmp.re.  atherto  the  Dominion,  had  done  litUe 
m  the  way  of  m.val  defend,  though  they  had  one 
by  one  a«umed  full  ,.,pon,ibility  for  their  land 

^r;..  .  ""^  '""  '""  '^-''^  ^»  they 
;Jould  take  a  larger  .hare  of  the  common  burden 

Two  factor.^owever.  had  blocked  advance  in  this 

d«ct.on.    Tie  Britiri.  Government  had  claimed 

and  exercued  f uil  eont«.l  of  the  i«.ues  of  p«.ce  and 
war.  and  the  Dominions  were  relucUnt  to  aasume 
«.pon..b.hty  for  the  con«quences  of  a  foreign 

T^'nfl'^7'^'^'""'^^'-  Thehostil^ 
of  the  Bnt..h  Admiralty,  on  strategic  and  politi«U 
grounds,  to  the  plan  of  local  Dominion  navies.  h«l 
prevented  progress  on  the  most  feasible  lines.  The 
deadlock  was  a  serious  one.  Now  the  imminence 
of  danger  compelled  a  solution.  Taking  the  lead 
m  Uus  mst«.ce  in  the  working  out  of  the  policy  of 


MKROcorr  iBounioN  tbt  chait 

(*NS<  and  ISO  TtST  CHADT  No.  3) 


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1.6 


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/APPLIED  HVHGE    Inc 

1633  Etnt  kkiin  SIrMi 

RocKnlar,  Nm  Yorti        U609       USA 

(71ft)  4B2  -  0300  -  Phon* 

(716)  288-M09  -  Fo» 


CM  THE  CANADIAN  DOMTNION 

colonial  nationalism,  Australia  bad  already  insisted 
upon  abandoning  tbe  barren  and  inadequate  policy 
of  making  a  cash  contribution  for  the  support  of  a 
British  squadron  in  Australasian  waters  and  had 
established  a  local  navy,  manned,  maintained, 
and  controlled  by  the  Commonwealth.  Canada  de- 
cided to  follow  her  example.  In  March,  1909, 
the  Canadian  House  of  Commons  unanimously 
adopted  a  resolution  in  favor  of  establishing  a 
Canadian  naval  service  to  cooperate  in  close  rela- 
tion with  the  British  navy.  During  the  summer  a 
special  conference  was  held  in  London  attended  by 
ministers  from  all  the  Dominions.  At  this  confer- 
ence the  Admiralty  abandoned  its  old  position;  and 
it  was  agreed  that  Australia  and  Canada  should 
establish  local  forces,  cruisers,  destroyers,  and  sub- 
marines, with  auxiliary  ships  and  naval  bases. 

When  the  Canadian  Parliament  met  in  1910, 
Sir  Wilfrid  Laurier  submitted  a  Naval  Service 
Bill,  providing  for  the  establishment  of  local  fleets, 
of  which  the  smaller  vessels  were  to  be  built  in 
Canada.  The  ships  were  to  be  under  the  control 
of  the  Dominion  Government,  which  might,  in 
case  of  emergency,  place  them  at  the  disposal  of 
the  British  Admiralty.  The  bill  was  passed  in 
March.    In  the  autumn  two  cruisers,  the  Rainbow 


THE  YEARS  OF  FULFILMENT  ^ 
«.d  the  A^iote.  were  bought  from  Britain  to  serve 
-   rammg  sh.ps.    I„  the  following  spring  a  naval 

called  for  the  construction,  in  Canada,  of  five 

«gu  ar  Imperial  Conference  of  that  year,  an  agr^ 
ment  waa  reached  regarding  the  boundaries  7Z 

Austral.anand Canadian  stationsanduniforX 
trammg  and  discipline. 

of  STcr'  *''  ""''''"'*^  ''^'"^  '"'''  »»>«  defeat 
of  the  Government.    No  tenders  had  been  finally 

^Pted.  and  the  new  Administration  of  Pr^:^^ 
Borden  was  free  to  frame  its  own  policy. 

t.on  The  pohcy  of  a  Dominion  navy,  a  oolicv 
wh.  was  the  logical  extension  of  thTpl^^Z 
wbch  had  gmded  imperial  development  for  many 
IT^r  "^""^  '^  "Itra-imperialists  in  the 
Enghsh-speakangprovincesasstrategicallyunsound 
«d  as  leadmg  mevitably  to  separation  f„.m  the 

TZb  '\rf°  ""'"''«' ^^^'-^  Nationalists 
L  tW  M  "'*™-'o-alists  or  provincialists. 
«« they  m,ght  more  truly  be  termed,  under  the  vig 

concision  to  unperialism  and  to  militarism.    Z 


anB 


THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 


'V. 


November,  1910,  by  alanning  the  buibitant  by  pic- 
tures of  his  sons  being  dragged  away  by  nayal  press 
gangs,  the  Nationalists  succeeded  in  defeating  the 
Liberal  candidate  in  a  by-election  in  Dnmunond- 
Arthabaska,  at  one  time  Laurier's  own  constit- 
uency. In  the  general  election  which  followed  in 
1911,  the  same  issue  cost  the  Liberals  a  score  of 
seats  in  Quebec. 

When,  therefore,  the  new  Prime  Minister,  Sir 
Robert  Borden,  faced  the  issue,  he  endeavored  to 
frame  a  policy  which  would  suit  both  wings  of  his 
following.  In  1912  he  proposed  as  an  emergency 
measure  to  appropriate  a  sum  sufficient  to  build 
three  dreadnoughts  for  the  British  navy,  subject 
to  recall  if  at  any  time  the  Canadian  people  decided 
to  use  them  as  the  nucleus  of  a  Canadian  fleet. 
At  the  same  tin.e  he  undertook  to  submit  to  the 
electorate  his  permanent  naval  policy,  as  soon  as 
it  was  determined.  What  that  permanent  policy 
would  be  he  was  unwilling  to  say,  but  the  Prime 
Minister  made  clear  his  own  leanings  by  insisting 
that  it  would  take  half  a  century  to  form  a  Cana- 
dian navy,  which  at  best  would  be  a  poor  and  weak 
substitute  for  the  organization  the  Empire  already 
possessed.  The  contribution  to  the  British  navy 
satisfied  the  ultra-imperialists,  while  the  promise 


THE  YEARS  OF  FULFILMENT  ««7 
of.  referendum  and  the  call  for  money  alone,  «.d 
not  men.  appealed  to  th.  Nationalist  wing.  Under 
the  nnpetuous  control  of  its  new  head,  Winston 
OurchJl.  the  British  Admiralty  showed  that  i^ 

navy  pohcy,  by  preparing  an  elaborate  memoran- 
dum to  support  Borden's  proposals,  and  also  by 
formulatmg  plans  for  imperial  flying  s<,uad«>,^ 
to  be  supphed  by  the  Dominions,  which  made 
clear  .ts  w^h  to  continue  the  centralizing  policy 
permanently     The  Liberal  Opposition  vi^Lly 
d^ounced  the  whole  dreadnought  programme,  ad- 
v^atmg  mstead  two  Canadian  fleet  units  s,:me- 
what  larger  than   at  first  contemplated.    Their 
ol.truct.on  was  overcome  in  the  Commons  by  the 
introduction  of  the  closure,  but  the     .  beral  ma- 
jonty  m  the  Senate,  on  the  motion  of  Sir  George 
Ros..  a  former  Premier  of  Ontario,  threw  out  th^ 

bemg    submitted  to  the  judgmentofthecountrv." 

Untd  the  outbreak  of  the  war  no  further  steps 
were  taken  either  to  arrange  for  contribution  or 
to  estabhsh  a  Canadian  navy,  though  the  naval 
co^^e  at  Halifax  was  continued,  and  the  training 
cru.        were  mamtained  in  a  half-hearted  way 


ft' 


*«  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

In  the  Imperial  Conference  of  1911.  one  more 
atU^mp    WM  made  to  aet  up  a  central  governing 
•uthontym  London.    Sir  Joseph  Ward,  of  New 
Z«iland.  actmg  as  the  mouthpiece  of  the  imperial 
ederatiomsts.  urged  the  establishment,  first  of  an 
Imperial  Comicil  of  State  and  later  of  an  Imperial 
Parliament.    His  proposals  met  no  support     "It 
IS  absolutely  impracUcable, "  was  Laurier's  verdict. 
Any  scheme  of  representation  -  no  matter  what 
you  call  It.  parhament  or  council  -  of  the  ove.^ 
Dommions  must  give  them  so  veo'  small  a  repre- 
sentaUon  that  it  would  be  practically  of  no  value," 
d^cared  Premier  Morris  of  Newfoundland.     "It 
«  not  a  practical  scheme."  Premier  Fisher  of 
Australia  agreed;  "our  present  system  of  respon- 
sible government  has  nol  broken  down."     "The 
"eation  of  some  body  with  centralized  author- 
Jty  ov^  the  whole  Empire,"  Aemier  Botha  of 
South  Africa  cogently  insisted,  "would  be  a  step 
ent«ly  antagonistic  to  the  policy  of  Great  Brit- 
am  which  has  been  so  successful  in  the  past. 
•  .  •    It  IS  the  policy  of  decentralization  which 
has  made  the  Empire -the  power  granted  to 
rts  various  peoples  to  govern  themselves."   Even 
Premier  Asquith  of  the  United  Kingdom  dedared 
the  proposals   "fatal  to  the  very  fundamental 


Tra  TCUIS  OF  mpiLMENT         m 

Stronger  then  any  logic  wa,  fJ..  ^ 

nad  been  m  arms  against  Great  Britain  Th- 
«>urageand  vision  of  Sir  Hen^^  CampW^.Ba  J^" 
-an  .n  granting  ful,  and  immediate  sSl^T 

sir^rrrr--*^""^ 

the  only  endurW  b!  •  ^^'^ '""•■'' ''^<»n  proved 
"d  l.  found  ,„  u™i„-.  ,„„j^,.      ^J2 

'^ith  the  United  States     tC  V  ,        '""^ 

was  th-.  f      •  ^  Venezuela  episode 

"«Wton  and  m  London  men  had  been 


il 


'if 

■I 


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ii 


\i 


«S0  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

Mtounded  to  find  themselves  on  the  verge  of  war. 
The  danger  passed,  but  the  shock  awoke  thousands 
to  a  realization  of  all  that  the  two  peoples  had  in 
common  and  to  the  need  of  concerted  effort  to 
remove  the  sources  of  friction.    Then  hard  on  the 
heels  of  this  episode  followed  the  Spanish-American 
War.'    Not  the  least  of  iU  by-products  was  a  re- 
markable improvement  in  the  relations  of  the 
Englif -.-.peaking  nations.    The  course  of  the  war. 
the  intrigues  of  European  courts  to  secure  inter- 
vention on  behalf  of  Spain,  and  the  lining  up  of 
a  British  squadron  beside  Dewey  in  Manila  Bay 
when  a  German  Admiral  blustered,  revealed  Great 
Britain  as  the  one  trustworthy  friend  the  United 
States  possessed  abroad.    The  annexation  of  the 
Philippines  and  the  definite  entry  of  the  United 
States  upon  world  politics  broke  down  the  irre- 
sponsible isolation   which  British  ministers  had 
found  so  much  of  a  barrier  to  diplomatic  accom- 
modations.   With  John  Hay  and  later  E'uu  Root 
at  the  State  Department,  and  Lansdowne  and 
Grey  at  the  Foreign  Office  in  London,  there  b^an 
an  era  of  good  feeling  between  the  two  countries. 
Ottawa  and  Washington  were  somewhat  slower 
in  coming  to  terms.    Many  difficulties  can  arise 

'SttTluPatkofEmfm. 


THE  YEARS  OP  FULFILMENT         «,, 
•W  .  th«e  thou«nd  fflile  border,  .nd  with  . 

a   thi,  period  and  a  people  «>  sensitive  tH^v T 
fnngements  of  their  naUonal  rights  J^e  Can. 
d«ns  were  petty  differences  often  loo  J  ^^  " 

^l,     T'    ^°^''"'">»t.    therefore.    p^poS 
shortly  after  its  accession  to  power  in  1896  S 

atten.ptshouIdben.adetocirra:;ro„UuJ 

-Fairhan.s.  Senator  Gr:;.teprn:S;tr 

T_J.Coohdge  of  the  state  Department.  Great 
ft^m  was  represented  by  Lord  He«chell.  Z 
•cted  as  clainnan.  Newfoundland  by  Sir  iamt 
Wmter   and  Canada  by  Sir  Wilfrid  Luri^   sj 

The  Commission  held  prolonged  sittings,  first  at 
Quebec  a.d  later  at  Washington,  and  re«^hed  te^! 
tative  agreement  on  nearly  all  of  the  troublesome 
questions  at   issue      n.^   k     j-  """'esome 

both  sides  the  b    der  I^^  ^t^'^  °" 
basis-  tl,»  ,.       •  i.t    ,  ^^*"  *°  assured 

relaxed,  the  Rush-Bagot  anvention  regarding 


■■'li 


iii 


WJ*  THE  CANADUN  DOMINION 

•rnument  on  the  Great  Lakes  waa  to  be  revised; 
Cuwdian  veuels  were  to  abandon  pelagic  lealing 
in  Bering  Sea  for  a  money  compensation;  and  a 
reciprocity  treaty  covering  natural  products  and 
some  manufactures  was  sketched  out.  Yet  no  agree- 
ment followed.  One  issue,  the  Alaska  boundary, 
provevl  insoluble,  and  as  no  agreement  was  ac- 
cepUble  which  did  not  cover  every  difference, 
the  G>mmission  never  again  assembled  after  its 
adjournment  in  February,  1889. 

The  boundary  between  Alaska  and  the  Do- 
minion was  the  only  bit  of  the  border  line  not  yet 
determined.  As  in  former  cases  of  boundary  dis- 
putes, the  inaccuracies  of  map  makers,  the  am- 
biguities of  diplomats,  the  clash  of  local  interests, 
and  stiff-necked  national  pride  made  a  settlement 
difficult.  In  1825  Russia  and  Great  Britain  had 
signed  a  treaty  which  granted  Russia  a  long  pan- 
handle strip  down  the  Pacific  coast.  With  the 
purchase  of  Alaska  in  1867  the  United  SUtes  suc- 
ceeded to  Russia's  claim.  With  the  growth  of 
settlement  in  Canada  this  long  barrier  down  half 
of  her  Pacific  coast  was  found  to  be  irksome.  At- 
tempt after  attempt  to  have  the  line  determined 
only  added  to  the  stock  of  memorials  in  official 


THE  YEARS  OF  FULFILMENT         las 
Pigeonhole.     Then  o.me  the  d«covery  of  gold  in 
the  Klondike  .n  1896.  and  the  question  of  e«y 
•cce«  by  sea  to  the  Canadian  back  country  b^ 
c«ne  an  urgent  one.    C«,ad.  offered  to  compro- 
nii.e.  «lmitting  the  American  title  to  the  chief 
PMt.  on  Lynn   Canal.  Dye.  and   Skagway.  if 
pyramid  Harbor  were  held  Canadian.    She  unred 
arbitration  on  the  model  the  United  State,  had 
dictated  in  the  Venezuela  dispute.   But  the  United 
htate.  wa.  in  possession  of  the  most  important 
points.    Its  people  believed  th.  Canadian  claim. 
Had  been  trumped  up  when  the  Klondike  fields 
were  opened.    The  Puget  Sound  cities  wanted  no 
breach  in  their  monopoly  of  the  sup-'     trade  to 
the  north.    The  only  concession  the  Lnited  States 
would  make  was  to  refer  the  dispute  to  a  com- 
mission of  six.  three  from  each  country,  with  the 
proviso  that  no  area  settled  by  Americans  shcdd 
in  any  event  pass  into  other  hands.    Canada  felt 
that   arbitration   under   the.     conditions   would 
either  end  in  deadlock,  leaving  the  United  States 
in  pwsession.  or  in  concession  by  one  or  more  of 
the  British  representatives,  and  so  declined  to 
accept  the  proposed  ar  angement. 

Finally,  in  1903.  agreement  was  reached  betwr  a 
London  and  Washington  to  accept  the  tribunal 


'4 

'V 


f 

'V 


ft. 


s 


»*  THE  CANADLW  DOMINION 

propoMd  by  the  United  Sutee.  which  in  turn  with- 
drew  ita  veto  on  the  tnuufer  of  any  letUed  areiu 
Canada'.  relucUnt  consent  waa  won  by  a  provuion 
that  the  meuben  of  the  tribunal  should  be  "im- 
partial jurists  of  repute,"  .worn  to  render  a  judi- 
cial verdict.     When  Elihu  Root.  Senator  Lodge, 
and  Senator  Turner  were  named  as  the  American 
reprewntative..  OtUwa  protested   that  eminent 
and  honorable  as  they  were,  their  public  attitude 
on  thisquestion  made  it  impossible  to  consider  them 
"impartial  jurists."   The  Canadian  Government  in 
return  nominated  three  judges,  Lord  Alveratone, 
Lord  Chief  Justice  of  England,  Sir  Louis  Jett*.  of 
Quebec,  ana  Mr.  Justice  Armour,  succeeded  on  his 
death  by  A.  B.  Aylesworth.  a  leader  of  the  Ontario 
bar.    The  tribunal  met  in  London,  where  the  caw 
wa.  thoroughly  argued. 

The  Treaty  of  1825  had  provided  that  the  wu  Ji- 
ern  boundary  should  follow  the  Portland  Canal  to 
the  fifty-sixth  paraUel  of  latitude  and  thence  the 
summits  of  the  mountains  paraUel  to  the  coast, 
with  the  stipulation  that  if  the  summit  of  the 
mountains  anywhere  proved  to  be  more  than  ten 
marine  leagues  from  the  ocean,  a  line  drawn  paral- 
lei  to  the  windings  of  the  coast  not  more  than  ten 
leagues  distant  should  form  the  boundary.    Three 


™e  VEAIB  OP  reu7LMENT        «, 

The  decision  set  Canada  aflame     ^^^  ai 
..one  was  denounced  in  unmZ:^      Z^  tZ 
Atlantic  to  P«:ific  the  charge  WMThJ?,  . 
more  the  interests  of  Ca3a  L  ^^         """^ 
by  Britain  on  the  altar^!?    ,^  ^°  '*"^'*«' 

1        not  the  decuiion.  but  the  way  in  which  it 
was  made,  that  roused  deep  an«r     tZ  T 

on  the  main  issue,  that  the'i;:r«ba^:or:« 

"-r.^ri:re^-""'— - 

ugu  unwelcome,  was  accepted  as  a 


II 


Ml 


4 


336  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

judicial  verdict  and  has  since  been  iittle  questioned. 
The  finding  that  the  boundary  should  follow  cer- 
tain mountains  behind  those  Canada  urged,  but 
short  of  the  ten  league  line,  was  attacked  by  the 
Canadian  representatives  as  a  compromise,  and  its 
judicial  character  is  certainly  open  to  some  doubt. 
But  it  was  on  the  third  finding  that  the  thunders 
broke.  The  United  States  had  contended  that  the 
Portland  Channel  of  the  treaty  makers  ran  south 
of  four  islands  which  lay  east  of  Prince  of  Wales 
Island,  and  Canada  that  it  ran  north  of  these 
islands.  Lord  Alverstone,  after  joining  in  a  judg- 
ment with  the  Canadian  commissioners  that  it 
ran  north,  suddenly,  without  any  conference  with 
them,  and,  as  the  wording  of  the  award  showed, 
by  agreement  with  the  United  States  representa- 
tives, announced  that  it  ran  where  no  one  had  ever 
suggested  it  could  run,  north  of  two  and  south  of 
two,  thus  dividing  the  land  in  dispute.  The  is- 
lands were  of  little  importance  even  strategical- 
ly, but  the  incontrovertible  evidence  that  instead 
of  a  judicial  finding  a  political  compromise  had 
been  effected  was  held  of  much  importance.  Af- 
ter a  time  the  storm  died  down,  but  it  revealed 
one  unmistakable  fact:  Canadian  nationalism  was 
growing  fully  as  fast  as  Canadian  imperialism. 


THE  YEARS  OF  FULFILMENT         ^ 
travel  multiplied.    The  two  d^7  * 

^^o.e,,tte.,.ev:;r;:rr^^^^^ 

5  SnaTw   .'""'^  ™de.tandi„«s  Z' 
brin„         °  ^^'^'ngProsperity  did  not  merely 

deaLW  with  it,  n     It  P''^'°''^^m  in  its 

-^trfftheTte'  r"7r  °'^  ^^-- 

6  as  referred  to  the  Hague  Court  in  190fl 
^everd.ot  of  the  arbitrators  recogni^Hl  a  ml: 


4 


^ 


888  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

ure  of  right  in  the  contentions  of  both  sides.  A 
detailed  settlement  was  prescribed  which  was  ac- 
cepted without  demur  in  the  United  States,  New- 
foundland, and  Canada  alike.  Pelagic  sealing  in 
the  North  Pacific  was  barred  in  1911  by  an  in- 
ternational agreement  between  the  United  States, 
Great  Britain,  Japan,  and  Russia.  Less  success 
attended  the  attempt  to  arrange  joint  action  to 
regulate  and  conserve  the  fisheries  of  the  Great 
Lakes  and  the  salmon  fisheries  of  the  Pacific,  for 
the  treaty  drawn  up  in  1911  by  the  experts  from 
both  countries  failed  to  pass  the  United  States 
Senate. 

But  the  most  striking  development  of  the  decade 
was  the  businesslike  and  neighborly  solution  found 
for  the  settlement  of  the  boundary  waters  con- 
troversy. The  growing  demands  for  the  use  of 
streams  such  as  the  Niagara,  the  St.  Lawrence, 
and  the  Sault  for  power  purposes,  and  of  western 
border  rivers  for  irrigation  schemes,  made  it  essen- 
tial to  take  joint  action  to  reconcile  not  merely  the 
conflicting  claims  from  the  opposite  sides  of  the 
border  but  the  conflicting  claims  of  power  and 
navigation  and  other  interests  in  each  country. 
In  1905  a  temporary  waterways  commission  was 
appointed,  and  four  years  later  the  Boundary 


Waters  IVeaty  p„,vided  for  the  «,t«hr  u 
»  permanent  Joint  High  Co^,  ""'"^  °^ 

of  three  representative  w'^r"'  «""-«»« 
with  authority  over  all  0../  ~"°*^'  ""'^ 

cJ'Ver^on  of  lird" "atr  I  7^ 'r  ^"°"'  °' 
either  country  were" L'ed  t^  '  """"''  °' 
directly  before  the  Col  ^'^'"*  ^^^'^  «^ 

intenJ.onarp^cuS^T.r'"'  -  -ovation  in 

thenewspirit  wTs S',-    ,       """''  '''«°^«'»'  »' 
*""'  was  the  inclusion  in  this  t,«  .      / 

ciausep«,viding  for  reference  to  th!r  ""  ^ 

with  the  consent  of  the  Uni^  sLt    """  ' 

the  Donunion  Cabinet,  of  .^^^^^^T  """^ 

•«ue  between  the  two  counter  wj''*'':''- "* 

cu«ion  and  as  a  matter  of  co^e  It  T  "^ 

U^entoff^ture^^LXt:"---^ 

^^c.itwas^rr;:-rbr:;^.--^eof 

^fi-iy  entrenched  in  St^^l':^:^*"™-- 
•wrs.  It  is  true  had  n^t  k  """tries.    Tanff 

rapid  ,^Tol^:\^f':  *"  ^"^"^"^  *^« 
states  to  CanSa^ad  '^  ^"""  "'^  ^'^^ted 
Canada  now^^  1?T"  t^"^  ''^'  «-«l 

public's  eu.to^t^sri':"'^^"*"^"'^  «- 

i^et  m  many  ways  the  tariff 


i 


p\ 


«40  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

hindered  free  intercourse.  Though  every  dictate 
of  self-interest  and  good  sense  demanded  a  reduc- 
tion of  duties,  Canada  would  not  and  did  not  take 
the  initiative.  Time  and  again  she  had  sought 
reciprocity,  only  to  have  her  proposals  rejected, 
often  with  contemptuous  indiflference.  When  Sir 
Wilfrid  Laurier  announced  in  1900  that  there 
would  be  no  more  pilgrimages  to  Washington,  he 
voiced  the  almost  unanimous  opinion  of  a  people 
whose  pride  had  been  hurt  by  repeated  rebuffs. 

Meanwhile  protectionist  sentiment  had  grown 
stronger  in  Canada.  The  opening  of  the  West  had 
given  an  expanding  market  for  eastern  factories 
and  had  seemingly  justified  the  National  Policy. 
The  Liberals,  the  traditional  upholders  of  freer 
trade,  after  some  initial  redemptions  of  their 
pledges,  had  compromised  with  the  manufacturing 
interests.  The  Conservatives,  still  more  protec- 
tionist in  temper,  voiced  in  Parliament  little  criti- 
cism of  this  policy,  and  the  free  trade  elements 
among  the  farmers  were  as  yet  unorganized  ..nd 
inarticulate.  Signs  of  this  protectionist  revival, 
which  had  in  it,  as  in  the  seventies,  an  element  of 
nationalism,  were  many.  A  four-story  tariff  was 
erected.  The  lowest  rate?  were  those  granted 
the  United  Kingdom;  then  came  the  intermediate 


im  mUB  or  FOLWLMENT         „, 

provinces  one  bv  „n.  fT.       ^"""""on.     The 
wood  cut  on  Cror?     w^  '  ''''  ^*'"''  »'  ^"'P 

The  Donunion  in  iZ'^Zf^'J''  '''"""^■ 
tbepostalconvenuJlrj^^^  n  "r'""  °' 
»  1875  providing  for  rf  ^"""^  S'»*«» 

othercounC    ZZ   "i  °"^°"*^"«  »  ^« 
ofCanadian^ani    ''"'r'^"''**^-"^*"-'* 

«  directing  trade  across  the  ^e     ^^  ""^''^'-r 
such  developments  th.  r^      J  *''*''  "''^ 

Wer  than  fts T.^h  Ws       "''""  *^  ^^^ 

In  the  United  States  the  tendency  was  in  th 
other  direction.     With  fi.„  ^  ^  "*  ""* 

interests  of  th.  *^''"'  °^  «f«.  the 

-^cairh  tSr-  ^'""'^-*"-- 
-reign  markets.  Wploo;  Tu'^*^'  "'"'«' 
terials  were  morl  TZ  i  """^  "^""P  ™''  "»-»- 

nmrket    ^hT-rTT'^  *^""  "  P'^'^^t^d  home 

their  activ^'  andTf  •« ' ''"''  "*  *^«  ^'^^^  ^f 
..        '^'  •"*'  ""^  *«"»•  «  one  instrument  of 


'^ 


248  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

corruption  and  privilege,  was  suffering  with  the 
popular  condemnation  of  all  big  interests.  United 
SUtes  newspapers  were  eager  for  free  wood  pulp 
and  cheaper  paper,  just  as  Canadian  newspapers 
defended  the  policy  of  checking  export.  It  was 
not  surprising,  therefore,  that  reciprocity  with 
Canada,  as  one  means  of  increasing  trade  and  re- 
ducing the  tariff,  took  on  new  popularity.  New 
England  was  the  chief  seat  of  the  movement,  with 
Henry  M.  Whitney  and  Eugene  N.  Foss  as  its 
most  persistent  advocates.  Detroit,  Chicago,  St. 
Paul,  and  other  border  cities  were  also  active. 

Official  action  soon  followed  this  unofficial  cam- 
paign. Curiously  enough,  it  came  as  an  unex- 
pected by-product  of  a  further  experiment  in 
protection,  the  Payne-Aldrich  tariff.  For  the  first 
time  in  the  experience  of  the  United  States  this 
tariff  incorporated  the  principle  of  minimum  and 
maximum  schedules.  The  maximum  rates,  fixed  at 
twent;  -five  per  cent  ad  valorem  above  the  normal 
or  minimum  rates,  were  to  be  enforced  upon  the 
goods  of  any  country  which  had  not,  before  March 
10,  1910,  satisfied  the  President  that  it  did  not 
discriminate  against  the  products  of  the  United 
States.  One  by  one  the  various  nations  demon- 
strated this  to  President  Taft's  satisfaction  or 


THE  YEARS  OF  FULFILMENT        u, 
'"«  wry  faces  made  th*.r„.^-    . 
At  l«t   Canada  al'""*'""''**  ""^^-'y- 

Engdon.  did  lot  c«^^^^^^^^  '^«  United 

--ted  that  it  sh„reX  ;r"""t"'  '"*  " 
<»»t]y  extended  to  Fran  "7  .  '^"^  ™*^'  '*■ 
this  demand  walrlT^  ^  ""^"'y-  '"  Canada 
tariff  rate. Irmr;'^"''''"'''^-*--     I*. 

Ti-ted  state:i:rd  r;  tr  *'r  '^'^•^'^  ^'-^ 

-t^weretwiLa^;;?   rit^-;-^^ 
n»and  was  based  «„  j ,  ^™  de- 

ver«d  of  the^^ronVr-  ""^  '^"'^"^*^  ^ 
of  the  most  favored  nTt^  T'""  '"^-P^etation 
•^-itted  the  fZ  ^f  Ca"nL  f"-  '''^  ^^'"■''-* 
the  law  left  him^n     ^  '  «>»tention,.  but 

ieavehimfritd:idTr::/°r-'--*^i«^ 

concessions,  and  thus  ^'men^  'T  °'  ""^ 
«t  the  eleventh  hour  mTI  T  '^''''''' 
tion  a  conference  at  Albany  1'"*'^  '"^«^'- 
the  30th  of  March  a  K  '''™«^'  '«<'  on 

-ncededtotrUnitedSr  r  ^''"'''-    '^^'^''^ 

«-  on  thirteenrntni'Srrr  "-^^ 
""ts.  prunes,  and  whatnot     Th.^  "'"*"'• 

-«  equivalent  to  the  Te^ L  f       """'  ""'"P*"' 
and  Canada  was  certifi2l  k  ^""^  """'"  ^''^^^' 
mumrates.    The  U^fJsT ?"? '"""''' *° •»''"•- 
^'"eumted  States  had  saved  its  face 


SM 


THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 


(\i 


Then  to  complete  the  comedy,  Canada  immediately 
granted  the  same  concessions  to  all  other  countries, 
that  is,  made  the  new  rates  part  of  the  general  tariff. 
The  United  States  ended  where  it  began,  in  receipt 
of  no  special  concessions.  The  motions  required  had 
been  gone  through;  phantom  reductions  had  been 
made  to  meet  a  phantom  discrimination. 

This  was  only  the  beginning  of  attempts  at 
accommodation.  The  threat  of  tariff  war  hod 
called  forth  in  the  United  States  loud  protests 
against  any  such  reversion  to  economic  barbarism. 
President  Taft  realized  that  he  had  antagonised 
the  growing  low-tariff  sentiment  of  the  country 
by  his  support  of  the  Payne-Aldrich  tariff  and  was 
eager  to  set  hir^jelf  right.  A  week  before  the 
March  negotiations  were  concluded,  a  Democratic 
candidate  had  carried  a  strongly  Republican  con- 
gressional district  in  Massachusetts  on  a  platform 
of  reciprocity  with  Canada.  The  President,  there- 
fore, proposed  a  bold  stroke.  He  made  a  sweeping 
offer  of  better  trade  relations.  Negotiations  were 
begun  at  Ottawa  and  concluded  in  Washington. 
In  January,  1911,  announcement  was  made  that  a 
broad  agreement  had  been  effected.  Grain,  fruit, 
and  vegetables,  dairy  and  most  farm  products, 
fish,  hewn  timber  and  sawn  lumber,  and  several 


THE  YEARS  OF  PULFttjjEj^ 
mineral,  were  put  on  the  free  lUt     A  few 

compact  was  tn  K«        ■  ..  '^  reauced.    The 

»>.rnc„r«":.*;^::r'a;aT'^"^'"^'''"* 

the  same  termstoir  T      '""  **»  «'«»d 

^t..andra«;i'":rt?T-'""°'"''^ 

by  policy.  '  P«rt.  of  the  Bntbh  Empire 

difficultywa.  Jt      T  '^'*°''*-    ^ore 

publican;  anTw  r*'"'  "^'^P*'  «- 

onJyinasDeri.i        .  "«*^* '^e  bargam.    It  was 

opposition wa^ovllmefni?  T  *'"*  "^^ 
-t.  after  ^u.e^ni^:^^^^^'^^'^ 
tives   attacked   t).„  """"on,  the  Conscn-a- 


SM 


TBE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 


(\1 


little  oppoMtion,  for  it  wai  predaely  tlie  type  of 
agreement  that  Government  after  Government, 
Conservative  as  well  as  Liberal,  had  sought  in  vain 
for  over  forty  yean.  For  a  day  or  two  that  ex- 
pectation was  justified.  Then  the  forces  of  op- 
position rallied,  timid  questioning  gave  way  to 
violent  denunciation,  and  at  last  agreement  and 
Government  alike  were  swept  away  in  a  flood 
of  popular  antagonism. 

One  reason  for  this  result  was  that  the  verdict 
was  given  in  a  general  election,  not  in  a  referendum. 
The  fate  of  the  Government  v.-as  involved;  its 
general  record  was  brought  up  for  review;  party 
ambitions  and  passions  were  stirred  to  the  utmost. 
Fifteen  years  of  officeholding  had  meant  the  accu- 
mulation of  many  scandals,  a  slackening  in  admin- 
istrative efliciency,  and  the  cooling  by  official 
compromise  of  the  ardent  faith  of  the  Liberalism 
of  the  earlier  day.  The  Government  had  failed  to 
bring  in  enough  new  blood.  The  Opposition  fought 
with  the  desperation  of  fifteen  years  of  fasting  and 
was  better  served  by  its  press. 

Of  the  side  issues  introduced  into  the  campaign, 
the  most  important  were  the  naval  policy  in  Que- 
bec and  the  racial  and  religious  issue  in  the  Eng- 
lish-speaking provinces.    The  Government  had  to 


THE  YEARS  OF  PUI^MKNT        ,„ 
^w^t  S.  Wi«„d  UunW  tennH  "the  unhoj 

penalin.  and  for  s  Jifi  .    "^t^n.  «d  in.- 

iuv»l  policy -«  ,♦*    I.  ^        ""  evwy  hand  the 
»  contention  hotiv  w     •  j  T   *^"«'P««'  "««  - 

of  Ontario  a  .ul.ZlZtsT^r'^''-" 
WM carried  on  against  th./  '  ^^Paign 

•  JVench  Roman  Ca^d"  St    '?""'''"  "'^ 
vain  the  Liberals  .n^V!  ^'^*"=''-     I" 

•tarted  back  fii'  i^'^:^.  ^  »'*-«'  "-ty  or 

-— njLr;t:?:.ro::iv^?; 

Conservafve-Nationalist  alliance  cosUhTr 
ment  n>any  seats  in  Quebec  "'?"''''"' ^^"^''n- 
not  frighten  Ontano.  "PP-^ently  did 

Reciprocity,  however,  was  thp  „  •     •     . 

'  "^^  *''*  principal  issue 


m 


(\' 


ii 


M8  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

•varywhere  except  in  Quebec.  Powerful  (oreet  were 
•myed  againit  it.  Few  nuuiufacturee  had  been 
put  on  the  tree  list,  but  the  argument  that  the 
redprodtjr  agreement  waa  the  thin  edge  of  the 
wedge  rallied  the  organised  manu/acturen  in  al- 
mott  unbroken  hoctile  array.  The  railwayt,  fear- 
ful that  western  traffic  would  be  diverted  to  United 
States  roads,  opposed  the  agreement  vigorously 
under  the  leadership  of  the  ex- American  chairman 
of  the  board  of  <)irectors  of  the  Canadian  Pacific, 
Sir  William  Van  Home,  who  made  on  this  occasion 
one  of  his  few  public  entries  into  politics.  The 
banlu,  closely  involved  in  the  manufacturing  and 
railway  interests,  threw  their  weight  in  the  same 
direction.  They  were  aided  by  the  prevalence  of 
protectionist  sentiment  in  the  eastern  cities  and 
industrial  towns,  which  were  at  the  same  stage  of 
development  and  in  the  same  mood  as  the  cities 
of  the  United  States  some  decades  earlier.  The 
Liberal  fifteen- year  compromise  with  protection 
made  it  difficult  in  a  seven  weeks'  campaign  to 
revive  a  desire  for  freer  trade.  The  prosperity  i  ♦ 
the  country  and  the  cry,  "Let  well  enough  alone," 
told  powerfully  against  t'le  bargain.  Yet  merely 
from  the  point  of  view  of  economic  advantage,  the 
popular  verdict  would  probably  have  been  in  its 


I 


THElTBABSOFPULFiUttj^         ,« 

P«Per  in  Can«Ja  «nd  all  fh  "^  '■"" 

therefor,  did  not  tmt  to  a^J^i  /t-oPPoneuU. 
Their  .tr.teKv  wa.  t„  J  '"*"*''  "'•^l'- 

-on.ioadv^ntZ   ,ta:::,t""°"/'°'-  ''' 
•iMger.    Ther^lT   .""'«*''•  "y°' political 

the  pollin,  tr    "-"^  '  '---  'o'WH  it  to 

P«)in  tile  outset    th«n    ti. 
P«cit,  concentrate  ?h;:  atal'"'""''  *"  '^'^ 
per"-.    Theydenounc,^^^  **"  '*'  P°''t««l 

to  c^-d^rr::^ -;7- the  '^-^^o. 

They  pr„phe,.-,d  that  L  trade.  """""°"- 
buiit  up  between  the  Ea^t  Jd t  ^tT^r 
by  yeaw  of  «ac;ifice  «n^    .  •       "'«*  of  Canada 

•way.andthatTa^lTecltTr^  """'''  '"^^'^ 
become  a  mereir^?:^  ^-^-'--ould 

of  theUnitedsJrXre^het  '"""'  '^'^ 
-uid  the  heart  be  7^  ^^tr^ ''"' "'"' 
-P-ty.thechanne.ofcr^-X^,- 


f! 


1 


m 


UO  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

be  so  changed  that  a  sudden  return  to  high  protec- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  United  States  would  disrupt 
industry  and  a  mere  threat  of  such  a  change  would 
lead  to  a  movement  for  complete  union. 

This  prophecy  was  strengthened  by  apposite 
quotations  showing  the  existing  drift  of  opinion 
in  the  United  States.  President  Taft's  reference 
to  the  "light  and  imperceptible  bond  uniting 
the  Dominion  with  the  mother  country"  and  his 
"parting  of  the  ways"  speech  received  sinister  in- 
terpretations. Speaker  Champ  Clark's  announce- 
ment that  he  was  in  favor  of  the  agreement  be- 
cause he  hoped  "  to  see  the  day  when  the  American 
flag  will  float  over  every  square  foot  of  the  British 
North  American  possessions"  was  worth  tens  of 
thousands  of  votes.  The  anti-reciprocity  press  of 
Canada  seized  upon  these  utterances,  magnified 
them,  and  sometimes,  it  was  charged,  inspired  or 
invented  them.  Every  American  crossroads  poli- 
tician who  found  a  useful  peroration  in  a  vision  of 
the  Stars  and  Stripes  floating  from  Panama  to  the 
North  Pole  was  represented  as  a  statesman  of  na- 
tional power  voicing  a  universal  sentiment.  The 
action  of  the  Hearst  papers  in  sending  pro-reci- 
procity editions  into  the  border  cities  of  Cana- 
da made  many  votes  —  but  not  for  reciprocity. 


THE  YEABS  OF  FULFILMENT         as, 

.offer  fools  gladly.  It  was  vain  to  argue  that  all 
men  of  weight  in  the  United  States  had  come  to 
understand  and  to  respe.^  Canada's  independent 

United  SUtes  thought  but  what  Canada  thought 
^at  mattered;  or  that  the  Canadian  farmer  who 
sold  a  bushel  of  good  wheat  to  a  United  States 
nuller  no  more  sold  his  loyalty  with  it  than  a  Kip- 

lingselhngavolumeof  verse  oraCanadian  financier 
sellmg  a  block  of  stock  in  the  same  market.  The 
flag  was  waved,  and  the  Canadian  voter,  mindful 

of  former  American  slights  and  backedbynewly  ar- 
rived Englishmen  admirably  organized  by  the  anti- 
reciprocity  forces,  turned  against  any  "enUngling 
alhance.  The  prosperity  of  the  country  made^ 
safe  to  express  resentment  of  the  slights  of  half  a 

century  or  fear  of  this  too  sudden  friendliness 

The  result  of  the  elections,  which  were  held  on 
September  21,  1911,  was  the  crushing  defeat  of  the 
Liberal  party.  A  Liberal  majority  of  forty-four  in 
a  house  of  two  hundred  and  twenty-one  member, 
was  turned  into  a  Conservative  majority  of  forty- 
nine.  Eight  cabinet  ministers  went  down  'o  de- 
ir^r'^^^  Government  had  a  slight  majority  in 
the  Maritime  Provinces  and  Quebec,  and  a  large 


i ' 


:vv 


l^\ 


MS  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

majority  in  the  prairie  We«t,  but  the  overwhelm- 
ing victory  of  the  Opposition  in  Ontario,  Manitoba, 
and  British  Columbia  turned  the  day. 

The  appeal  to  loyalty  revealed  much  that  was 
worthy  and  much  that  was  sordid  in  Canadian  life. 
It  was  well  that  a  sturdy  national  self-reliance 
should  be  developed  and  expressed  in  the  face  of 
American  prophets  of  "manifest  destiny."  and 
that  men  shoulu  be  ready  to  set  ideals  above 
pocket.  It  was  unfortunate  that  in  order  to  dem- 
onstrate a  loyalty  which  might  have  been  taken 
for  granted  economic  advantage  was  sacrificed; 
and  it  was  disturbing  to  note  the  ease  with  which 
big  interests  with  unlimited  funds  for  organizing, 
advertising,  and  newspaper  campaigning,  could 
pervert  national  sentiment  to  serve  their  own 
ends.  Yet  this  was  possibly  a  stage  through  which 
Canada,  like  every  young  nation,  had  to  pass; 
and  the  gentle  art  of  twisting  the  lion's  tail  had 
proved  a  model  for  the  practice  of  plucking  the 
eagle's  feathers. 

The  growth  of  Canada  brought  her  into  closer 
touch  with  lands  across  the  sea.  Men,  money,  and 
merchandise  came  from  East  and  West;  and  with 
their  coming  new  problems  faced  the  Government 


THW  YEABS  OP  FULFILMENT         «, 

between  tt,«  »  i  '*'*'  halfway 

substantiairon  ;i^  j;-'  '»  «^-n,e„t  based 
until  1910     Sr  '''''"'"'"*'  ratification 

-ciudl.  itirr'  ""r-^"''  '^^- 

and  Italy     Th  ^"'"'  *^^  Netherlands, 

thetr.tywa.ne.o;:::i..Xr:;:i^r 

d«n  ministers,  W.  S.  Fielding  and  LP  fild 

•    ^"^  agreement  with  Italv 
was  negotiated  in  Canada  between  "th     P       , 
Consul  of  Italy  for  Canada,  rtrentinl  ^h      ' 
e™-ntoftheKi„gdomofItairrd"t^^-:; 


i 


J- 


H 


«M  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

of  FiMnce  of  Canada,  representing  His  Excel- 
lency the  Governor  General  acting  in  conjunction 
with  the  King's  Privy  Council  for  Canada."  The 
conclusions  in  these  later  instances  were  embodied 
in  conventions,  rather  than  formal  treaties. 

With  one  country,  however,  tariff  war  reigned 
instecd  of  treaty  peace.     In  1898  Germany  sub- 
jected Canadian  exports  to  her  general  or  maxi- 
mum tariff,  because  the  Dominion  refused  to  grant 
her  the  preferential  rates  reserved  for.  members 
of  the  BriUsh  Empire  group  of  countries.     After 
four  years'  deliberation  Canada  eventually  retal- 
iated by  imposing  on  German  goods  a  special  sur- 
tax of  thirty-three  and  one-third  per  cent.     The 
trade  of  both  countries  suffered,  but  Germany's, 
being  more  specialized,  much  the  more  severely.' 
After  seven  years'  strife,  Germany  took  the  in- 
itiative in  proposing  a  truce.    In  1910  Canada 
"greed  to  admit  German  goods  at  the  rates  of 
the  general  —  not  the  intermediata  —  tariff,  while 
Germany  in  return  wuived  her  protest  against  the 
British  preference  and  granted  minimum  rates  on 
the  most  important  Canadian  exports. 

Oriental  immigration  had  been  an  issue  in  Cana- 
da ever  since  Chinese  navvies  had  been  imported 
in  the  early  eighties  to  work  on  the  government 


THE  YEARS  OF  FULFILMENT         «,, 
•ections  of  the  Canadian  Pacific  RaiWav     M' 
owners,  fruit  farmer.   .  j  '""way.    Mine 

io-  that  th  uTp  ;;hol"''*r°"  "^-^  •"«- 

but.asintheUrSsu'Te  ""'^^'^^ 

tions  of  the  labor  -mion^and  t       T"  °^^'^- 
^-ad.ocate.0;:-;:---^ 

B.?h:d"rs:nrrrr '■"  '^^ 

doubled;  and  in  1904  it  wa;raiS  to  ;^*T 
each  case  the  tax  proved  a  barrier  on     r 

the  Promised  I^n/  t  ^  *'  *°"  ^  ««*» 

promised  Land.    Japanese  immigrants  did  n„* 
come  m  large  numbers  until  1906  wh      .k 
tiM .,/  »™„i  *  "^"e"  the  activi- 

ties of  employment  compam-es  brought  seven  th 

Japanese  nots  broke  out  in  V«n~.         • 

T\      .  .  "■'"  Vancouver  in  1907   Tk_ 

DommionGovernmentthengrappledw^re^ui 
tion.    Japan  s  nctio-al  sensitiveness  and  h„ 

RodolpheLem.eux.suc.eededinl907innegou;S 


^1 


i 


I 


«M  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

at  Tokio  an  agreement  by  which  Japan  herself 
undertook  to  restrict  the  number  of  passport* 
issued  annually  to  emigrants  to  Canada. 

The  Hindu  migration,  which  began  in  1907, 
gave  rise  to  a  still  more  delicate  situation.  What 
did  the  British  Empire  mean,  many  a  Hindu  asked, 
if  British  subjects  were  to  be  barred  from  British 
lands?  The  only  reply  was  that  the  British  Gov- 
ernment which  still  ruled  India  no  longer  ruled  the 
Dominions,  and  that  it  was  on  the  Dominions  that 
the  responsibility  for  the  exclusion  policy  must 
rest.  In  1909  Canada  suggested  that  the  Indian 
Government  itself  should  limit  emigration,  but 
this  policy  did  not  meet  with  approval  at  the  time. 
Failing  in  this  measure,  the  Laurier  Government 
fell  back  on  a  general  clause  in  the  Immigration 
Act  prohibiting  the  entrance  of  immigrants  except 
by  direct  passage  from  the  country  of  origin  and  on 
a  continuous  ticket,  a  rule  which  effectually  barred 
the  Hindu  because  of  the  lack  of  any  direct  steam- 
ship line  between  India  and  Canada.  An  Order-in- 
Council  further  required  that  immigrants  from  all 
Asiatic  countries  must  possess  at  least  $200  on 
entering  Canada.  The  Borden  Government  sup- 
plemented these  restrictions  by  a  special  Order-in- 
Council  in  1913  prohibiting  the  landing  of  artisans 


1™  YEARS  OP  FULFILMENT         j,, 
-unbilled  laborers  of  any  race  at  porU  in  British 

-nt.S:paS ytlV  ""^  ''•"'"  """^^ 
ui  apparently  some  German  assistant  A^ 

raer  and  the  Government  ordered  H.  M  C  S 
Rainbow  to  intervene     B^  .        •        . 
torv  th»fi    ,      ^^^-    ^y  "  curious  irony  of  his- 
tory the  fi„t  occasion  on  which  this  first  Canadian 

o7S,?BrTK  r'"  ""^  ^"'^■"^'^  °f  -other  part 

When  the  S,khs  reached  Calcutta  in  September. 

Weld  ,T  \''""  "^"'^"^  ---  '-  o 
We  Md  later  an  abortive  attempt  at  rebellion 
^mmatey  there  were  ,ood  proU  tt  ^ 
tadwn  Government  would  in  future  accept  the 
P^posal  made  by  Canada  in  1909.  At  the'lm^ 
ml  Conference  of  I9I7,  where  representafVes^f 
J-d.a  we^  present  for  the  fir,t  time,  it  was  a^e^^^ 


):' 


h 


«•  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

to  recommend  the  principle  of  reciprocity  in  the 
treatment  of  immigranU,  India  thus  being  free 
to  save  her  pride  by  imposing  on  men  from  the 
Dominions  the  same  restrictions  the  Dominion* 
imposed  on  immigrants  from  India. 

But  all  these  dealings  with  lands  across  the  sea 
paled  into  insignificance  beside  the  task  imposed 
on  Canada  by  the  Great  War.  In  the  sudden  crisis 
the  Dominion  attained  a  place  among  the  nations 
which  the  slower  changes  of  peace  time  could 
scarcely  have  made  possible  in  decades. 

When  the  war  party  in  Germany  and  Austria- 
Hungary  plunged  Europe  into  the  * 'niggle  the 
world  had  long  been  fearing,  there  was  not  a 
moment's  hesitation  on  the  part  of  the  people  of 
Canada.  It  was  not  merely  the  circumstance  that 
technicaUy  Canada  was  at  war  when  Britain  was 
at  war  that  led  Canadians  to  instant  action.  The 
degree  of  participation,  if  not  the  fact  of  war.  was 
wholly  a  matter  for  the  separate  Dominions.  It  was 
the  deep  and  abiding  sympathy  with  the  mother 
country  whose  very  existence  was  to  be  at  stake. 
Later,  with  the  unfolding  of  Germany's  full  de- 
signs of  world  dominance  and  the  repeated  dis- 
play of  her  callous  and  ruthless  policies,  Canada 


TOE  YEARS  OP  FULPiucENT         «. 
comprehended  the  magwtude  of  th   ^ 

•on  Government  cabJed  t«  "  '""^'  *'"'  Domin- 
"«.noe  that  the^?  ,^''*'°"  '^'"■'  ^  «- 
eveo^  ^orifice  :.':Lt  ^        "'"  '^°"'''  -''« 

--wr„ftheEm::L^:::;;^«^-^t, 

"  to  the  form  aid  should  tale  Th  fi  ''T'^ 
•d°>inist«itive  measures  thT  ^'^  *"""««' «nd 
we«^  carried  out  T^Z  *'*'"'=^  '''»»'««1«J 

-ce  with  the"Lme?f  hT""^"""'  '"  '^^^ 
months  beforeSdTee:^''""  ^'"^  °"'^  «  '- 
Two  wee^s  later  Parr  ^  ""  '°  "  ^"^  ^ook. 
<^y  session  Z'XT:'^'  "  "  *''"''"  '°- 
the  war  credits  I  r  '"^^''^  ""'"^  -°*«1 

fe-ed  uponit  s^J7""»-*  ^^"^  -<i  con- 

-"Jn:r2:::r;r---^^-. 

Haifasman.rrZrinLT'''^'"™- 
cartier  near  Quebec^H  K     u  **'"P  "*  ^"J" 

thi.  fi«t  C«n»H  ^  "•'  '°''^'^«  »f  October 

C«-d"»  contingent,  over  30.000  strong 


)'\l 


MO 


THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 


the  largest  body  of  troops  which  iuid  ever  craned 
the  Atlantic,  was  already  in  England,  where  it*  train- 
ing wa«  to  be  completed.  As  the  war  went  on  and 
all  previous  forecasts  of  its  duration  and  its  scale 
were  far  outrun,  these  numbers  were  multiplied 
many  times.  By  the  summer  of  1917  over  400,000 
men  had  been  enrolled  for  service,  and  over  340,000 
had  already  gone  overseas,  aside  from  over  iS.OOO 
Allied  reservists. 

Naturally  enough  it  was  the  young  men  of  Brit- 
ish birth  who  first  responded  in  large  numbers  to 
the  recruiting  officer's  appeal.  A  military  back- 
ground, vivid  home  memories,  the  enlistment  of 
kinsmen  or  friends  overseas,  the  frequent  slight- 
ness  of  local  ties,  sent  them  forth  in  splendid  and 
steady  array.  Then  the  call  came  home  to  the 
native-bom,  and  particularly  to  Canadians  of 
English  speech.  Few  of  them  had  dreamed  of 
war,  few  had  been  trained  even  in  militia  musters; 
but  in  tens  of  thousands  they  volunteered.  From 
French-speaking  Canada  the  response  was  slower, 
in  spite  of  the  endeavors  of  the  leaders  of  the 
Opposition  as  well  as  of  the  Government  to  en- 
courage enlistment.  In  some  measure  this  was 
only  to  be  expected.  Quebec  was  dominantly 
rural;  its  men  married  young,  and  the  country 


■m:  rauis  of  FuinuraNT      », 

Henn  Bourassa.  who  opposed  aofV.  r  j  ^ 
ticipation  in  the  war.  U  k  ofw  '^'':t*'"' P"' 
tl,,   r„,  *^™  °' wet  on  the  part  of 

the  Government  and  reckless  taunt,  from  « 

tremi»tomOnUriomadetf,-K      T  ^' 

V.f  n.  ^*  '^'■*"<'''  steadily  wider 

sitTzLT^^riX^^^t 

^.p^ea„.fellfi,htin,hravely.andi:'wa:'p^S 
C^nad^an  battalion  Z.,  p^^,,  Z)^^^,.^^ 
won  the  honors  at  Courcelette 

men  the  war  first  broke  out,  no  one  thought  of 
any  but  voluntary  methods  of  enlistment  As  the 
«a,n.tude  of  the  task  came  home  to  men  and  tt 
example  of  Great  BriUin  had  its  influence,  voi^ 

ert  Borden,  the  Premier,  and  Sir  Wilfrid  I.urier 


If 


f    1 


M*  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

•like  oppoaed  the  niggett'in.  Early  in  1017  the 
adoption  of  conicription  in  the  United  States, 
and  the  need  of  reCnforcementa  for  the  Canadian 
forces  at  the  front  led  the  Prime  Minister,  imme- 
diately after  his  return  from  the  Imperial  Confer- 
ence in  London,  to  bring  down  a  measure  for  com- 
pulsory service.  He  urged  in  behalf  of  this  course 
that  the  need  for  men  was  urgent  beyond  all  ques- 
tion; that  the  voluntary  system,  wasteful  and  un- 
fair at  best,  had  ceased  to  bring  more  than  six 
or  seven  thousand  men  a  month,  chiefly  for  other 
than  infantry  ranks;  and  that  only  by  compulsMn 
could  Quebec  be  brought  to  shoulder  her  fair  share 
and  the  slackers  in  all  the  provinces  be  made  to 
rise  to  the  need.  It  was  contend?'.',  c.  '•.he  other 
hand,  that  great  as  was  the  need  for  men,  the  need 
for  food,  which  Canada  could  best  of  all  countries 
supply,  was  greater  still;  that  voluntary'  recruiting 
had  yielded  over  four  hundred  thousand  men,  pro- 
portionately equivalent  to  six  million  from  the 
United  States,  and  was  slackening  only  because 
the  reservoir  was  nearly  drained  dry;  and  that 
Quebec  could  be  brought  into  line  more  eflFectively 
by  conciliation  than  by  compubion. 

The  issue  of  conscription  brought  to  an  end  the 
political  truce  which  had  been  declared  in  August, 


THE  YEARS  OP  HJLFIUSEST         ttt 
1»14.    The  k«„er  p.rti«n.  on  both  .ide.  hiul  not 
long  bMn  ,bU  to  .bide  on  the  height,  of  non-p^ 
btic*!  p.tnoti.m  which  they  h«l  occupied  in  the 
fint  generou.  weel«  of  the  wu.    But  the  public 
WBi  wewy  of  p.rty  crie.  ud  cdled  for  unity 
Suggestion,  of  .  codiUon  were  n,ade  >t  different 
tim«.  but  the  party  in  power,  new  to  the  .wecU 
of  office,  confident  of  it.  cap«,ty.  and  backed  by  a 
rtrong  majority,  gave  little  heed  to  the  demand 
Now.  however,  the  strong  popular  opposition  of- 
ta*d  to  the  announcement  of  conscription  led  the 
Prime  Minister  to  propose  to  Sir  Wilfrid  Laurier 
a  caption  Government  on  a  conscription  basis. 
Sir  Wilfnd.  while  continuing  to  express  his  desire 
to  cooperate  in  any  way  that  would  advance  the 
common  cause,  declined  to  enter  a  co;.  ition  to  car- 
ry out  a  programme  decided  upon  without  consul- 
Ution  and  likely,  in  his  view,  to  wreck  national 
umty  without  securing  any  compensating  increase 
m  numbers  beyond  what  a  vigorous  and  sym- 
pathetic voluntary  campaign  could  yet  obtain. 

For  months  negotiations  continued  within  Par- 
hament  and  without.  The  Military  Service  Act 
was  passed  in  August.  1917,  with  the  support  of 
the  majority  of  the  English-speaking  members 
of  the  Opposition.     Then  the  Government,  which 


I 

111 


i' 


U  'I 


864  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

had  already  secured  the  passage  ot  an  Act  provid- 
ing for  taking  the  votes  of  the  soldiers  overseas, 
forced  through  under  closure  a  measure  depriving 
of  the  franchise  all  aliens  of  enemy  birth  or  speech 
who  had  been  admitted  to  citizenship  since  1902, 
and  giving  a  vote  to  every  adult  woman  relative 
of  a  soldier  on  active  service.  Victory  for  the  Gov- 
ernment now  appeared  certain.  Leading  Eng- 
lish-speaking Liberals,  particularly  from  the  West, 
convinced  that  conscription  was  necessary  to  keep 
Canada's  forces  up  to  the  need,  or  that  the  War 
Times  Election  Act  made  opposition  hopeless, 
decided  to  accept  Sir  Robert  Borden's  offer  of 
seats  in  a  coalition  Cabinet. 

In  the  election  of  December,  1917,  in  which 
passion  and  prejudice  were  stirred  as  never  be- 
fore in  the  history  of  Canada,  the  Unionist  forces 
won  by  a  sweeping  majority.  Ontario  and  the 
West  were  almost  solidly  behind  the  Government 
in  the  number  of  members  elected,  Quebec  as  sol- 
idly against  it,  and  the  Maritime  Provinces  nearly 
evenly  divided.  The  soldiers'  vote,  contrary  to  Aus- 
tralian experience,  was  overwhelmingly  for  con- 
scription. The  Laurier  Liberals  polled  more  civil- 
ian votes  in  Ontario,  Quebec,  Alberta,  and  British 
Columbia,  and  in  the  Dominion  as  a  whole,  than 


THE  YEARS  OF  FULFILMENT         g« 
the  united  Liberr  •.,>,,  ,r  1.    . 

th^r  ffT'^ate^,  however,  and  ffav» 

new  Government,  the  belief  that  it  woulH  h 
more  vigorous  in  carrying  on  th  \ 

to  make  Quebec  do  itTZr"    the  T         '"'" 

leaders  of  the  Western  T  K      ,       "^"""'^^  °^  *'>'= 
lue  western  Liberals  and  of  tho  r,.»- 

monthslfte  theti^r  T  "  ^'^  "^"'*-    ^'^'■* 

war.  so  far  Tcl 'Ih  '  inscription,  but  the 

.  so  lar  as  Canada  was  concerned,  was  fo„„),f 

and  won  by  volunteers.  "«''* 

Bel?L'ff"''"""«  ^"*"*'   <^°'°nie8,"   wrote 
Bemhardi  before  the  war  "J,  .    , 


SOe  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

contemptuous  forecast  might  have  been  justified 
had  German  ejcpectations  of  a  short  war  been  ful- 
filled. Though  large  and  increasing  sums  had  in 
recent  years  been  spent  on  the  Canadian  militia 
and  on  a  small  permanent  force,  the  work  of  build- 
ing up  an  army  on  the  scale  the  war  demanded  had 
virtually  to  be  begun  from  the  foundation.  It  was 
pushed  ahead  with  vigor,  under  the  direction,  for 
the  first  three  years,  of  the  Minister  of  Militia, 
General  Sir  Sam  Hughes.  Many  mistakes  were 
made.  Complaints  of  waste  in  supply  departments 
and  of  slackness  of  discipline  among  the  troops 
were  rife  in  the  early  months.  But  the  work  went 
on;  and  when  the  testing  time  came,  Canada's 
civilian  soldiers  held  their  own  with  any  veterans 
on  either  side  the  long  line  of  trenches. 

It  was  in  April,  1915,  at  the  second  battle  of 
Ypres  —  or,  as  it  is  more  often  termed  in  Canada, 
St.  Julien  or  Langemarck  —  that  the  quality  of  the 
men  of  the  first  contingent  was  blazoned  forth. 
The  Germans  had  launched  a  determined  attack 
on  the  junction  of  the  French  and  Canadian  forces, 
seeking  to  drive  through  to  Calais.  The  use,  for 
the  first  time,  of  asphyxiating  gases  drove  back  in 
confusion  the  French  colonial  troops  on  the  left  of 
the  Canadians.     Attacked  and  outflanked  by  a 


THE  YEARS  OF  FULFILMENT  w 

G«m«,  army  of  150,000  men.  four  C«adian  bri- 
gade.,,mmen,ely  inferior  in  heavy  artilleiy  and  tor- 
tured by  the  poisonous  fume.,  filled  the  gap,  hamr- 

«K  on  doggedly  day  and  night  until  reenforcemSl 
-^eandCalaiswassaved.    In  sober  retrospect"  n 

.twas  almost  moredible  that  thethinkhakilShad 
held  aga.nst  the  overwhelming  odds  which  faced  it 

samrbrr'''r"*^"^"'^'^''»'^^-*"''«'^.-the 

-m  bloody  sahent  of  Ypres,  the  Canadian  division 
d^played  equal  courage  with  hardly  equal  success. 
In  the  sprmg  of  1916.  when  the  Canadian  forces 
^w  first  to  three  and  then  to  four  divisions,  heal^ 
tollwas  Uken  at  St.  Eloi  and  Sanctuary  Wood. 

When  they  were  shifted  from  the  Ypres  sector 
to  the  Somme.  the  dashing  succ^  at  Courcelette 
s^^owtHem  as  efficient  in  offense  as  in  defi:^ 

In  1917aCanad.angeneral,Sir  Arthur  Currie.  three 
years  before  only  a  business  man  of  Vanc^uvT 

took  command  of  the  Canadian  troops.  TbeJ^ 
ture  o  Vimy  Ridge,  key  to  the  whole  Arras  ^^i 
»n,  after  months  of  careful  preparation,  the  C 
^u.ht  struggle  for  Lens,  and  toward  the  close  of 
tte  year  the  winning  of  the  Passchendaele  Ridge 
at  heavy  cost,  were  instances  of  the  incre«,S; 


M8     THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

In  the  closing  year  of  the  war  che  Canadian 
corps  played  a  stiU  more  distinctive  and  essential 
part.  During  the  early  months  of  1918,  when  the 
Germans  were  making  their  desperate  thrusts  for 
Paris  and  the  Channel,  the  Canadians  held  little  of 
the  line  that  was  attacked.  Their  divisions  had 
been  withdrawn  in  turn  for  special  training  in  open 
warfare  movements,  in  close  cooperation  with  tanks 
and  air  forces.  When  the  time  came  to  launch  the 
Allied  offensive,  they  were  ready.  It  was  Canadian 
troops  who  broke  the  hitherto  unbreakable  Wotan 
line,  or  Drocourt-Queant  switch;  it  was  Canadians 
who  served  as  the  spearhead  in  the  decisive  thrust 
against  Cambrai;  and  it  was  Canadians  who  cap- 
tured Mons,  the  last  German  stronghold  taken 
before  the  armistice  was  signed,  and  thus  ended 
the  war  at  the  very  spot  where  the  British  "0!d 
Contemptibles"  had  begun  their  dogged  fight  four 
years  before. 

Through  all  the  years  of  war  the  Canadian  forces 
never  lost  a  gun  nor  retired  from  a  position  they  had 
consolidated.  Canadians  were  the  first  to  practice 
trench  raiding;  and  Canadian  cadets  thronged  that 
branch  of  the  service,  thrt  Royal  Flying  Corps,  where 
steady  nerves  and  individual  initiative  were  at  a 
premium.    In  countless  actions  they  proved  their 


THE  YEARS  OF  PULPILMENT         ,«, 

-u'cl  send.  tC  J::n  """^  ^''^  ^-*«^  ^Utes 
casualty  ]i.t  ofTao  1  T  '^"  *'"'*•  ^he 
forever  in  th    ^  ^  71'      '^T  '"'"^  "'^P 

Ihe  realization  that  in  a  wo.M 
the  men  in  the  trenche,  but  ^1  7  ""*  """^'^ 
and  must  be  count^  !  "'"  "''"°"  '=°"ld 

was  sW  in  cXm  cLTd  ^'^  '^'""«  ^-- 
-tic  and  unwarliLlr  |w;\r"'^"°- 
of  the  country  was  adjusted  to  a  \  '°'"^ 
theconflict  broke  out  th  '""'  '"""'•    ^«° 

together  after  the  lVH°",f'^"''^''""'»«'*^«« 
tive  boom  o     J    *  ""^^  °^  the  «pecula- 

-nwereel^u  rSrthe^^'^^-  ^°' "*  """^ 
gether  and  to  avert  the  It  "^'""^"""°  *°- 
the  spread  of  „1  ''^'^''^''"'g  "f  trade  and 

ThenTl  '''°^°'""*  '^'''^h  they  feared 

iJJen,  as  the  industrial  need,  «„^ 

of  the  war  became  clear  t^      ?,    T  ^'^"''"'^ 
factory  vied  in  Z  ''  '■""'•^-    ^'^'<1  «nd 

tributfon  ;?  ld^:r"'  ^"'^  *^^  Canadian  con- 
-bstantia/sItrthT^^rr^^'-ery 

-creased  threefold,  and^irew^r 


«70  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

than  doubled  as  compared  with  the  largest  year 

before  the  war. 

The  financing  of  the  war  and  of  the  industrial 
expansion  which  accompwinied  it  was  a  heavy  task. 
For  years  Canada  had  looked  u>  Great  Britain  for 
a  large  share  alike  of  public  and  of  private  borrow- 
ings. Now  it  became  necessary  not  merely  to  find 
at  home  all  the  capital  required  for  ordinary  de- 
velopment but  to  meet  the  burden  of  war  expendi- 
ture, and  later  to  advance  to  Great  Britain  the 
funds  she  required  for  her  purchase  of  supplies  in 
Canada.  The  task  was  made  easier  by  the  effec- 
tive working  of  a  banking  system  whicl  had  many 
times  proved  its  soundness  and  its  flexibility. 
When  the  money  market  of  Britain  was  no  longer 
open  to  overseas  borrowers,  the  Dominion  first 
turned  to  the  United  States,  where  several  federal 
and  provincial  loans  were  floated,  and  later  to  her 
own  resources.  Domestic  loans  were  issued  on  an 
increasing  scale  and  with  increasing  success,  and 
the  Victory  Loan  of  1918  enrolled  one  out  of  every 
eight  Canadians  among  its  subscribers.  Taxation 
reached  an  adequate  basis  more  slowly.  Inertia 
and  the  influence  of  business  interests  led  the  Gov- 
ernment to  cling  for  the  first  two  years  to  customs 
and  excise  duties  as  its  main  reliance.    Then  excess 


THE  YEARS  OF  FULFILMENT         ni 
profits  and  income  taxes  of  steadily  increasing 

tlL"'''  '?'"'"''  '^'^  "^^  '"-dens  were  Z 
tnbu  «,  ^ore  fairly.  The  Dominion  was  able  not 
only  to  meet  the  whole  expenditure  of  its  armed 

befoj.  the  war  and  to  become,  as  far  as  cum^ 
habJ  t,es  went,  a  creditor  rather  than  a  debtor  of 
the  United  Kingdom. 

It  was  not  merely  the  financial  relations  of  Can- 
ada w.th  the  United  Kingdom  which  required" 
^.ustment.  The  service  and  the  sacrifices  which 
the  Dom^,ons  had  made  in  the  common  cause  ren- 
dered  -t  'mperative  that  the  political  relations  be- 
tween the  different  part,  of  the  Empire  should  be 
put  on  a  more  definite  and  equal  basis.     The  feel 

mg  was  widespread  that  the  last  remnants  of  theold 
c«lon.aI  subordination  must  be  removed  and  that 
the  con^ol  exercised  by  the  Dominions  should  be 
extended  over  the  whole  field  of  foreign  affair,. 

The  Imperial  Conference  met  in  London  in  the 
sprmgofl917.  At  special  War  Cabinet  meetings 
the  representatives  of  the  Dominions  discussedZ 
plans  and  peace  terms  with  the  leaders  of  Britain 
It  was  decided  to  hold  a  Conference  immediately 
after  the  end  of  the  war  to  discuss  the  future  con^ 
stitutional  organization  of  the  Empire.    Premier 


id 
>  i  I 


i 


«7«  THE  CANADIAN  DOMINION 

Borden  and  General  Smuts  both  came  out  strongly 
against  the  projects  of  imperial  parliamentary  fed- 
eration ^ich  aggressive  organizations  in  Britain 
and  in  some  of  the  Dominions  had  been  urging. 
The  Conference  of  1917  recorded  its  view  that  any 
coming  readjustment  must  be  based  on  a  full  rec- 
ognition of  the  Dominions  as  autonomous  nations 
of  an  imperial  commonwealth;  that  it  should  recog- 
nize the  right  of  the  Dominions  and  of  India  to  an 
adequate  voice  in  foreign  policy;  and  that  it  should 
provide  eflFective  arrangements  for  continuous  con- 
sultation in  all  important  matters  of  common  con- 
cern and  for  such  concerted  action  as  the  several 
Governments  should  determine.  The  policy  of 
alliance,  of  cooperation  between  the  Governments 
of  the  equal  and  independent  states  of  the  Empire, 
searchingly  tested  and  amply  justified  by  the  war, 
had  compelled  assent. 

The  coming  of  peace  gave  occasion  for  a  wider 
and  more  formal  recognition  of  the  new  inter- 
national status  of  the  Dominions.  It  had  first 
been  proposed  that  the  British  Empire  should  ap- 
pear as  a  unit,  with  the  representatives  of  the 
Dominions  present  merely  in  an  advisory  capacity 
or  participating  in  turn  as  members  of  the  British 
delegation.    The  Dominion  statesmen  assembled 


THE  YEARS  OP  FULFILMENT  m 
in  London  and  Pari,  declined  to  ««,nt  to  thi,  pro- 
posal, and  asisted  upon  representation  in  the  Peace 

o^  Tr  Zi  "  ""•  ^^'  ""  ^'«°-  ^  their 
rj"  Ui'^  ^""^^  «-•— t.  after  some 
debate,  acceded.  a„d.  with  more  difficulty,  the 

con-toftheleadingAlheswaswon.  The  r  pi 
^tatives  of  the  Dominions  signed  the  treaty  ^th 
G^many  on  behalf  of  their  respective  coJItriet 

Bnt.h  Emp„e.  and  not  any  of  the  Dominions^  w  J 
given  a  place  in  the  real  organ  of  power,  the  E.- 
ecuuve  Council  of  the  Wue.  and  in  many  t 
sp^  the  exact  relationship  between  the  United 
Kmgdom  and  the  other  parts  of  the  Empire  in  in- 
ternational affairs  was  left  ambiguous,  for  later 

and  American  observer,  who  had  not  kept  in  close 
touch  w,th  the  growth  of  national  conLousn^ 
^Uun  the  BriUsh  Empire  were  apprehensive  lesl 
Uns  plan  should  prove  a  deep-laid  scheme  for 
^u^t.plymg  Bntish  influence  in  the  Conference 
and  the  League.     Some  misunderstanding  was 

2-^  »  view  not  only  of  the  unpre  Jented 
character  of  the  Empire's  development  and  polity 
but  of  the  incomplete  and  ambiguous  nature  oi 


■M  THE  CANADIAN  DOtUNION 

the  oompromue  affected  at  Paris  between  the 
nationalist  and  the  imperialist  tendencies  within 
the  Empire.  Yet  the  reluctance  of  the  British 
imperialists  of  the  straiter  sect  to  accede  to  the 
new  arrangement,  acd  the  independence  of  action 
of  the  Dominion  representatives  at  the  G>nferenoe, 
as  in  the  stand  of  Premier  Hughes  of  Australia 
on  the  Japanese  demand  for  recognition  of  racial 
equality  and  in  the  statement  of  protest  by  Gen- 
eral Smuts  of  South  Africa  on  signing  the  treaty, 
made  it  clear  that  the  Dominions  would  not  be 
mrrei.y  echoes.  Borden  and  Botha  and  Smuts, 
though  new  to  the  ways  of  diplomacy,  proved  that 
in  clear  understanding  of  the  broader  issues  and 
in  moderation  of  policy  and  temper  they  could 
bear  comparison  with  any  of  the  leaders  of  the 
older  nations. 


The  war  also  brought  changes  in  the  relations 
between  Canada  and  her  great  neighbor.  For  a 
time  there  was  danger  that  it  would  erect  a  barrier 
of  differing  ideals  and  contrary  experience.  Wlien 
month  after  month  went  by  with  the  United  States 
still  clinging  to  its  policy  of  neutrality,  while  long 
lists  of  wounded  and  dead  and  missing  were  filling 
Canadian  newspapers,  a  quiet  but  deep  resentment. 


there  were  othe„  ^J^T  I" ''l'"'""''"*"'-  V"' 
W  »ece««ry  Uwl  °  Th  ;^  '""^  ^^-'*  -d 
fin  complete  un,W  "  ^"""'  «'»»•'''  *»  at- 

-.  .ndW  d^e^t'r'l'''''"^  -*-•»«  ^He 
of  Canada  whereth         '.'^'*'°»  ''«  /«>m  that 

«- 300.000  cr^r/ri;:/'" '■"''■" 

were   12,000   men   of    .„    7""*  °^*''*'»-''- t''«T.- 

»>oth  residents  i„Ca„L,a:;;r  'i:*';  """"•^'"'^ 
"•e  border  to  enlist  ^e' 7"'" '"' ~"^ 
United  States  was  at  iJ  ^  '**"'"'^  "'  "•« 
Pl«-  in  the  raZ  o  T  r"^  ""^ ''  '""^  '*" 
don.,  the  J„y  of  Cald  ''^''*'»*  ^'"-  ^'- 

entran.Jt'he'lStrrtJrt^'"'-  ""^ 
-t  oniy  the  triumph  of  delr^.^  ^1"^ 
the  continuance  and  extension  JT    ?  P*'  ^"' 

^lations  between  tl  T  '^'^  """^  ^"«''dly 

-•  As  thT::;  tLtrir'^"^''  ^-- 

United  states  wlrj         "      *^''"'"^»  '^''  «•« 
"Hrted  re^u™  1"""  ""'  ""'*  *°  P~'  their 

-entials.  countless  Letlla^d       "'  ""'"  '^'»' 

the  bond  thati.c.d  the  ^;^""t.T  "''"^''  ^*° 
we  two  countries  together.   Nor 


ff7«  THE  CANADIAN  DOBUNION 

WW  it  material  unity  alone  that  wai  attained;  in  th- 
utterancei  of  the  head  of  the  Bepublic  the  highest 
aapirationa  of  Canadians  for  the  future  ordering  of 
the  world  found  incomparable  exprewion. 

Canada  had  done  what  the  could  to  assure  the 
triumph  of  right  in  the  war.  Not  leis  did  she  be- 
lieve that  she  had  a  contribution  to  make  toward 
that  new  ordering  of  the  world  after  the  war  which 
alone  could  compensate  her  for  the  blood  and 
treasure  she  had  spent.  It  would  be  her  mission 
to  bind  together  in  friendship  and  common  aspira- 
tions the  two  larger  English-speaking  states,  witii 
one  of  which  she  was  linked  by  history  and  with 
the  other  by  geography.  To  the  world  in  general 
Canada  had  to  offer  that  achievement  of  difference 
in  imity,  that  reconciliation  of  liberty  with  peace 
and  order,  which  the  British  Empire  was  struggling 
to  attain  along  paths  in  which  the  Dominion  had 
been  the  chief  pioneer.  "In  the  British  Common- 
wealth of  Nations,"  declared  General  Smuts,  "this 
transition  from  the  old  legalistic  idea  of  political 
sovereignty  based  on  force  to  the  new  social  idea 
of  constitutional  freedom  based  on  consent,  has 
been  gradually  evolving  for  more  than  a  century. 
And  the  elements  of  the  future  world  government, 
which  will  no  longer  rest  on  the  imperial  ideas 


THE  YEARS  OF  FULFILMENT         m 
•dopted  from  the  Roman  law    .„  .,«  ^     . 

n...  ueveiop  in  the  near  future."    Thi. 

ttV  Mem  M  ideiUi.tic  wm;  yet   .rr      1 
Prime  Minuter  «ked  .  New  il      .  * 

1816  "W),.»  -^  .      /  "'*  "udience  in 

"e  wor^e  *^  "'  •"'*"•"*  achievement  h« 
tiie  world  ever  Mcompliriied  that  wa«  not  K.^ 
on  idealism?"  ""^  ''•*«<' 


BrauOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

edited  by  A  Shortl»^H  A  "  ^™  "'^  ^  Province,. 

whole  fieldTa  „S^„r"  V'"*-''''^^  ~^"  «•« 

Conoia  (1845-184^  J- •'  ^"ne*"  »  flirt<n«  du 

Gan^u,    StrS;  Z;,-1'^  ?^'«'  ''y  Hector 
of  the  d;.eSi:S\?Sf^^-^J^.«co^ 

iigerton's  Canada  (1908)  "•  *• 

Altj:tvT„r:'rera,tM'^l;  ^"o  ^°^on 
official  and  private  A^^t^'J  f"*^?"  "' "rigin.' 
menu  fron.  Londo.'^'^  pj^''  I^TSTl.'".'''^"- 
Guide  io  the  Documentein^'u  \^"l^-  ^ 

=(:^.t"drr>«4r^^^"nX 


280 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 


issued  by  the  Archives  Branch,  of  which  A.  Shortt  and 
A.  G.  Doughty,  DocumaUs  Relating  to  the  Constittdional 
EiOory  of  Canada,  1759-1791,  and  Doughty  and  Mc- 
Arthur,  DocumenU  Relating  to  the  Conetitutional  Hietory 
of  Canada,  1791-1818,  have  already  appeared.  A  useful 
collection  of  speeches  and  dispatches  is  found  in  H.  E. 
Egerton  and  W.  L.  Grant,  Canadian  Comlilviional 
Development  (1907),  and  W.  P.  M.  Kennedy  has  edited 
a  somewhat  larger  collection,  Documente  of  the  Canadian 
ConstUution,  1769-1916  (1918).  The  later  Sessional 
Papers  and  Hansards  or  Parliamentaiy  Debates  are 
easily  accessible.  Files  of  the  older  newspapers,  such  as 
the  Halifax  Chronicle  (1880  to  date,  with  changes  of 
title),  Montreal  GazetU  (1778  to  date),  Toronto  GU)be 
(1844  to  date),  Maniioba  Free  Press  (1872  to  date), 
Victoria  Colonist  (1858  to  date),  are  invaluable.  The 
Dominion  Annual  Register  and  Review,  ed.  by  H.  J.  Mor- 
gan, 8  vols.  (1879-1887)  and  The  Canadian  Annual  Re- 
viea  nf  Public  Affairs,  by  John  Castell  Hopkins  (1901 
to  date),  are  useful  for  the  periods  covered. 

For  the  first  chapter.  Sir  Charles  P.  Lucas,  A  History 
of  Canada,  1763-1812  (1909)  and  A.  G.  Bradley,  The 
Making  of  Canada  (1908)  are  the  best  single  volumes. 
William  Wood,  The  Father  of  British  Canada  (Chronicles 
of  Canada,  1916),  records  Carleton's  defense  of  Canada 
in  the  Revolutionary  War;  and  Justin  H.  Smith's  Our 
SfruggUfortheFourteenthColony  (1907)  is  a  scholarly  and 
deUiled  account  of  the  same  period  from  an  American 
standpoint.  Victor  Coffin's  The  Province  of  Quebec  and 
the  Early  American  Revolution  (1896),  with  a  review  of 
the  same  by  Adam  Shortt  in  the  Review  of  Historical 
Publications  Relating  to  Canada,  vol.  I  (University  of 
Toronto,  1897),  and  C.  W.  Alvord's  The  Mississippi 


BIBLIOGBAPHICAL  NOTE  m 

y<f>yin  BritUh  PolUio.  S  vols.  (1017)  should  be  con- 
milted  for  an  interpreUtion  of  the  Quebec  Act.  For  the 
general  reader,  W.  S.  WaUace's  The  United  Empire  Loyal- 
ute  (ChromcU,  of  Canada,  1914)  supersedes  the  earlier 
Canadian  compilations;  C.  H.  Van  Tyne's  The  Loyalia, 
m  the  Amenran  Retolviion  (1908)  and  A.  C  Flick's 
I^a/«m  m  A-™,  York  during  the  American  Revolution 
(1901)  embody  careful  researches  by  two  American 

y  t^v  ^«^^r.°'  '^'*  "  """^  competently  treated 
by  Wilham  Wood  m  The  War  mih  the  United  State. 
{Chronide,  of  Canada,  1015);  the  naval  aspects  are 
sketched  in  Theodore  Roosevelt's  The  Naval  War  of 
18ie  (lS8i)  and  analyzed  scientifically  in  A.  T.  I  'ahan's 
Sea  Power  in  its  Relations  to  the  War  of  181S  (1905) 

For  the   period.   1815-1841.  W.  S.  Wallace's'  The 
FamUy  Compact  (Chronicles  of  Canada,  1915)  and  A  D 
De  CeUes's  The  PairioUs  of  'S7  (Chronicles  of  Canada. 
1816)  are  the  most  concise  summaries.    J.  C.  Dent's  The 
Story  of  the  Upper  Canadian  RebeUion  (1885)  is  biased 
but  careful  and  readable.     WiUiam  Lyon  Mackenzie.by 
Charles  Lindsey,  revised  by  G.  G.  S.  Lindsey  (1908). 
IS  a  sober  defense  of  Mackenzie  by  his  son-in-law  and 
grandson.    Robert  Christie's  A  History  of  the  Late  Prov- 
ince of  Lower  Canada,  6  vols.  (1848-1866)  preserves 
much  contemporary  material.    There  are  few  secondary 
books  taking  the  anti-popular  side:    T.  C.  Haliburton's 
The  BubbUs  of  Canada  (1839)  records  Sam  SUck's  op- 
position  to  reform;  C.  W.  Robinson's  Life  of  Sir  John 
Beverley  RoHnson  (1904)  is  a  lifeless  record  of  the  greatest 
Compact  leader.    Lord  Durham's  RepoH  on  the  Agairs 
of  British  North  America  (1839;  available  in  Methuen 
reprint,  1902.  or  with  introduction  and  notes  by  Sir 
Charles  Lucas,  3  vols.,  1918)  is  indispensable. 


S82  BIBU06RAFHICAL  NOTE 

For  the  Union  period  there  are  leyeral  political  biog- 
raphies available.  G.  M.  Wrong's  The  Earl  of  Elgin 
(1905).  John  Lewis's  George  Brown  (1906),  W.  L.  Grant's 
The  Tribune  of  Nova  Scotia  (Chronidee  of  Canada,  1914), 
J.  Pope's  Memoirt  of  the  Right  Honourable  Sir  John  Alex- 
ander Macdonald,  «  vols.  (1894),  J.  Boyd's  Sir  Oeorge 
Etienne  Cartier  (1914),  and  O.  D.  Skelton's  Life  and 
Timet  of  Sir  A.  T.  OaU  (1919).  cover  the  poUtical 
devebpments  from  various  angles.  A.  H.  U.  Col- 
quhoun's  The  Fathert  of  Confederation  {Ckronidet  of 
Canada,  1918)  is  a  clear  and  impartial  account  of  the 
achievement  of  Confederation;  while  M.  O.  Hammond's 
Canadian  Confederation  and  its  Leaden  (1917)  records 
the  service  of  each  of  its  chief  architects. 

For  the  years  since  Confederation  biographies  again 
give  the  most  accessible  record.  Sir  John  S.  Willison's 
Sir  Wilfrid  Laurier  and  the  Liberal  Party  (1903)  is  the 
best  political  biopaphy  yet  written  in  Canada.  Sir 
Richard  Cartwright's  Reminieceneee  (1918)  reflects  that 
statesman's  individual  and  pungent  views  of  affairi, 
while  Sir  Charles  Tapper's  RecoUeetione  of  Sixty  Years 
(1914)  and  John  Castell  Hopkins's  Life  and  Work  of 
Sir  John  Thompaon  (1895)  give  a  Conservative  ver- 
sion of  the  period.  Sir  Joseph  Pope's  The  Day  of  Sir 
John  Macdonald  {Chronidet  of  Canada,  1915),  and  6.  D. 
Skelton's  The  Day  of  Sa  Wilfrid  Laurier  (Chronidet  of 
Ctmada,  1916)  between  them  cover  the  whole  period 
briefly.  L.  J.  Burpee's  Scmdford  Fleming  (1915)  is  one 
of  the  few  biographies  dealing  with  industrial  as  distinct 
from  political  leaders.  Imperial  relations  may  be  studied 
in  G.  R.  Parkin's  Imperial  Federation,  the  Problem  of 
National  Unity  (1898)  and  in  L.  Curtis's  The  Problem 
of  the  Commomeealth  (1916),  which  advocate  imperial 


BIEUOGRAPHICAL  NOTE  ggs 

from  different  standpoint..  The  Report,  ol  the  ImZZ 
Conferences  of  1887. 1894.  1897,  190*.  1907.  1911^^7 
an>  of  much  value.  Relations  witl.  tte  u£  S 
a«d.scu»ed  judicioudyin  W-A-DunningTrA*  |^ 

recent  development  other  than  political  are  coveredb«i[ 
«  the  volumes  of  Canada  aJl  fr^Jlt^ 

fS^^l.r^Str'"^""""^^'^^^ 

histirSlt''r  '°r'"!.'~°'"  '^"^8  with  C«»dian 
veraity  of  Toronto  (1896  to  date). 


INDEX 


Abbott,  J.  J.  c.  ,nd  ,nn.M. 

^°'  C".d.  to   UnitVd 

St4tM,     109;     p„ni,,      , 

Cmnada,  I  go 
AMdU  (Nov.  Scoti.).  Sj  la. 

h»bitMti«iled.4;orijnof 

Ad.mi,  Briti.h  pe,„  com- 
miuioner  at  Ghent,  Jl 

Adam.,  John  Quincy,  peace 
commiuioner  at  Ghent,  SI 

Maiama  claim.,  lt»,  loo 

S«-Sfl'""'°''"'     queition, 
*'b"y.  con/erence  at  (1910), 

Allan,  Sir  Hugh,  167 
Alveratone,  Cord,  on  Alaak. 

boundary  tribunal,  «34-3fl 
Ambentburg  captured  by 

Americana,  48 
Andrew.,  ID.,  United  Sute. 

cop«ulinNewBrun.wick,lse 

^'i^^l*'''"'      Movement      of 

i^t'irsi'^'-'"''"'""-- 

Armour,   Justice,    on    Ala.k. 

boundary  tribunal,  ts* 
Arnold,   Ben«lict,   expedition 

to  Quebec,  20 
Arooatoolc  War  (1838-89).  118 

with  Webiter,  119 
A»qnith.  H.  H..  Britiah  Pre- 
mier, quoted,  n8-29 


ias 


Awiniboine  River,  forta  on,  7 
„..'."  convict  .ettle- 
m<!nt,Mj  and  South  African 
■'J}''  °»''on«l  feeling 
in.  tiO  ni:  e.tabli.h« 
navy,  M4 

Ayleaworth,  A.  B..  on  Ala.ka 
boundary  tribunal,  234 

Aylmer.  tord.  Governor  of 
Canada,  St 

Bagot,  Sir  Charle.,  Governor 
134  "''•''••     'O'-O*,     103. 

"•  W.,  74;  reformer,  73-70; 
on    Executive   Council,   88; 

la    Jny? f""'"  government, 
»»,   100    US;  and  I.,  F„„.' 

tame,  103;  Premier  with  U 
Fontaine,  104;  and  annexa- 
tion, 110 
Baldwin,  Dr.  W.  W.,  74 
Balfour,  Arthur,  quoted,  US 
BaplHt.  in  Canada,  35 
Bathur.t,  Lord.  Colonial  Sec 

retary,  IIO;  quoted,  83-84 
Bayard.    James,    peace   com- 
miMioner  at  Ghent,  31 

Rivotut,on.  cited,  10  (note) 

"«'«l'""- '™'y»ff«cting  tariff, 

m.   «13    «14;   Urirf"  nego- 

tiation  with.  MS  ^ 

Bering  .Sea  controveriy,  187 

Bcrntaardi  quoted,  fits 


886 


INDEX 


Bidwcll,  Bcnwbu.  74 

BidwtUt  M.  S.,  son  of  Bun«> 
b*t.  74 

Blaim,  1.  G.,  SeereUr]'  of 
SUte,  18« 

Blair,  A.  C,  Premier  of  New 
Brunswiclc,  801 

BUke,  Edward,  Premier  of 
OnUri  ,  16fl;  Opposition 
leader.  17S:  retirei,  184;  end 
treaty-malung,  191 

Blanchud,  Jottaem,  112 

Boer  War,  m  South  African 
War 

Borden,  Sir  Robert,  Premier 
of  Canada,  tiSi  and  navy, 
286;  on  conicription,  861- 
868;  on  imperial  federation. 
871-78 

Botha,  Louie,  Premier  of  South 
Africa,  888,  88* 

Boulton,  61) 

Boundary  Watera  Treaty,  868- 
83S 

Bouraesa,  Henri,  leader  of 
uitra-natianaliits,  818,  88S, 
847,  861 

Bowell,  Sir  Mackenaie.  IM. 
1»8 

Briaud.  Biihop,  16 

Bright,  John,  and  tariff,  108; 
on  leparation  of  Canada 
from  England.  13S.  164 

Britiih  Ci  '■imbia,  entera  Con- 
federation (1871).  157;  on 
verge  of  seceuion,  160 

British  North  America  Act, 
146 

Brock,  Isaac,  £8;  Hull  sur- 
renders to,  47;  succeeded  by 
Drummond,  48 

Brodeur,  L.  P..  863 

Brougham,  Lord,  and  Dur- 
ham, M 

Brown,  General  Jacob,  49 

Brown,  lieutenant  of  Papineau, 
88 

Brown.  George.  134;  leader  of 
"Clear  Grits,"  ISS,  IS8-S9; 


plan  for  federal  union.  189; 
141:  retires  from  political 
life,  148-49;  on  tariff,  168- 
169;  and  settlement  of  difi- 
culties  with  United  States, 
I6t 

Buchanan,  Isaac,  188 

Buller,  Charles,  98;  quoted,  66 

Burdett,  Sir  Francis,  Whig 
leader,  88 

Burke,  Edmund,  on  French 
Revolution,  81  (note) 

Burke  Channel,  Mackenaie  in, 
48 

Campbell.  Sir  Colin.  Governor 
.  of  Nova  Scotia.  118-18 
Campbell-Banner  man.    Sir 

Henry.  889 
Canada,  division  of  territory. 
8-7;  settlers.  3-4,  16,  U- 
88.  64-67,  804-07;  <w  aUo 
Immigration;  as  British 
problem.  7  tt  ttq.i  British 
policy  in.  9  tt  uq.;  bounda- 
ries, 9  (note),  18, 84-86, 117- 
181,  838-36;  government, 
11,  88  et  itq.;  148  tt  ttq.; 
and  American  Revolution, 
19-84;  Constitutional  Act 
(1791),  30-33;  and  War  of 
I8I8,  44-63;  pioneer  life. 
67  el  teq.;  transportation, 
69-60,  164,  166-68,  171-73, 
809;  money  and  banking, 
60-61;  social  life.  61;  educa- 
tion, 61-68.  137;  growth  of 
self-government.  68-67. 137; 
commerce,  64-66;  union  of 
provinces,  06  «t  teq,;  "Prov- 
ince of, "  98  (note);  question 
of  responrible  government, 
98  et  ttq,;  reciprocity  with 
United  SUtes,  110,  181-86. 
168.  184-86.  838.  848-68; 
and  American  Civil  War. 
188-33;  plan  for  Confedera- 
tion. 133-46;  "Representa- 
tion  by   Population,"    138; 


INDEX 


S87 


Donimon  formed  (1M7), 
U«;  irowth  of  territory, 
151,  IM.  19S-<8:  troubl*  in 
Wot,  lU-M,  174-76;  fiiher- 
iu  dispute,  I5I>-«1,  I7*-8I, 
4S7-S8!  qucition  of  iade- 
pendence,  183-84;  tuiS  u 
party  iuue,  18»-71;  Na- 
tional Policy,  171,  184; 
racial  conflict!,  171-77; 
eiodui  to  United  Statei, 
177;  and  United  States 
178-88,  tt»-5t,  «74-7»; 
policy  of  imperial  coopera- 
tion, 181-SA,  tta-t»;  Mani- 
toba achool  queetion,  107-1)9; 
land  policv,  i08-00;  growth 
of  political  unity,  *10ei  uq. ; 
proaperity,  <I0;  and  South 
African  War,  aie-18;  de- 
feaie  iuue,  223-17;  eatab- 
liihee  nvif.iM;  and  Europe, 
%ii-&i;  immipation,  M4- 
«8;  and  Great  War,  M8-78; 
and  Peace  Conference,  «7«; 
bibliography,  179-83;  >« 
ctUa  Lower  Canada,  Upper 
Canada,  namea  of  Provinces 
Canada    (Quebec),    province. 

•••Quebec 
Canada  Eait,  98  (note) 
Canada  Weit,  98  (noU),  IDS 
Canadian  National  Bailwayi, 

«10  (note) 
Canadian  Northern  Bailway. 

«10  (note) 
Canadian  Pacific  Railroad,  189. 

184,  203,  209 
Canadien,  £•,  newspaper  es- 
tablished at  Quebec,  41 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  219,  220 
Cape  Breton,  3 
Cariboo,  discovery  of  sold  in. 

187 
Carleton,    General    Sir    Guy, 
Governor  of  Canada,  14-16, 
17;  in  Revolutionary   War. 
20;  becomes  Lord  Dorches- 


ter, 20;  returns  to  Canada 
as  Governor,  29-80 
Carolittas,  Loyalist  in  Revolu- 
tion, (8 
Carroll,  Charles,  of  CarroUton. 

20-21 
Carroll,  Jesuit  priest,  brother 

of  Charles.  21 

CarUer,  Sir  G.  E.,  leader  of 

French-Canadian      liberals, 

134,  138,  138,  1«,  149,  108 

Cartwright,  Sir  Richard,  and 

commercial      union,      184; 

quoted,  188;  on  Joint  High 

Commission,  231 

Cataraqui,  Loyalists  settle  on 

the,  27 
Catholics,  come  to  Canada,  4; 
under  British  law,  10, 12-13; 
and  Quebec  Act,  18;  attitude 
toward   Prance,  89;  in  re- 
bellion    of     1837.     88:     on 
annexation    of    Canada    to 
United  SUtes.  110;  Routei 
against,  138 
Chamberlain,  Joseph,  Colonial 
Secretary.    214.    21S.    210. 
220.  221 
Charlton.  John,  on  Joint  High 

Commission.  231 
Charlottetown.  Prince  Edward 
Island,  conference  to  form 
federation  held  at.  143 
Chase.  Samuel,  20 
"ChAteau  clique,*'  40.  79 
Chtnier,  Dr.  J.  O.,  89-90 
Ckuaptake   captured    by    the 

Shannon,  49 
Chippawa,   British  forces  de- 
feated at.  49 
Christie.  Robert,  quoted.  78 
Chrystler's   Farm,  defeat    at. 

48 
Churchill,  Winston,  227 
CivU  War.  Canada  and  the, 

125-33 
Clark,  Champ,  quoted,  250 
Clay.  Heni^,  quoted,  45;  peace 
commissioner  at  Ghent,  51 


CItvtUnd,  GroYtr.  ud  S,h«. 
IM  ountioo,  180;  Vtnauil. 

of  tta*  Caudiwi,'   IM 

Eric  Ditch,"  s« 

Colbonw,  Sir  Jobn,  87 
CohmalAJmat,,  Brock  monu- 

ment  and,  77 
Colonkl  ConfcrcDM,  Saliibury 
Mill    flrit  ■  (1887).    1»3-Mj 
"COM    tt   Ottawa    (1804) 
IM;  thi«l  ia  Undon,  «U    ' 

«I0:  fifth  (1007),  att;  u, 
r  I'" '.'»Ji«r'»l  Conference 
Columbi.  Hiver,  Robert  Gr.y 

on,  43  ' 

«8,M-«4:  policy  of  Great 
Britain.    ISO;    que.tion    of 
conmercial  union  of  Canada 
and  United  Statei,  188-88; 
«•  aUa  Tariff 
Confederation  Act,  1S8 
Coucription,  i61-CS 
Constitutional  Act,  30-3S 
uintinental  Congreu,  20 
Coolidge,  T.  J.,  on  Joint  High 

Commiiaion,  231 
Corn  Ijwi,  repeal  of,  108 

38;  hoitile  to  Prencb-Cana- 
diana,  30-40 

^'Sir''  ^*''*"''  ■""•odar  of, 

*^wir,l«   ■■"'"•'''  ^'"' 
Cuitonii  union,  188 
Cuvillier.  iupporter  of  Pap- 
ineau.  8< 


INDEX 


Dalhousie,  Lord.  goTcroor  gen- 
eral of  Canada,  82,  8« 


High  Coamijaioa.  281 

''iM',-7'!r'-*^-""'- 

OyUn.  Alf«d.  rf  A«t„iu, 

at^LondoB.  lahariei  award. 

i«Rnr.  ir,   Bouraaaa'a  newa- 
paper.  847 
I  Dillon,     John,     agiution     in 
Ireland,  178 

Joint  High  Conimiiaion,2SI 
Duraeli,  Benjamin,  and  ..Mra- 

tioa  of  Canada  from  6ntt 
^  Britain.  138.  104 
Dorcheiter.  Lord,  34;  u,  «/„ 

Carleton,  General  Guy 

^f  ?? '  '*:.'*••  •?,''  ""'•lion 
?i<J:'i"l*'''.^?,""' State., 
109;  leader  of  Roufu,  13«, 

Doughty  and  McArthur,  Don- 
lunlt  lUlatint  lo  Ikt  Con- 

Douala.  Stephen  A.,  188^ 

Draper.  W.  H.,  104 

Drummond,  Sir  George  Gor- 
don,  aucceeda  Brock,  48 

Ducheanay,  aeigneur  in  Lower 
Canada,  37 

Dumont,  Gabriel,  174 

Duncombe.  iupporter  of  Mac- 
kenzie, CO 

Dundas  Street,  34 

Dunkin,  Chriitopher,  144 

Dunn   on   Executive  CouacU 

under  Head,  88 
Durham,    Lord,    quoted,    88: 
SST,"°;«"""'°' Canada, 
««.  03;  Rerort.  9S-04;  policy 
of  uaion,  M,  8«         ' »~  •■J' 


INDEX 


BduMUen,  10, 61-M,  114,  lOT; 

Mtoitob*  Mkool   quMtion. 

1T7  1»T-M,  IM 
I  MtioB  rtfornt.  1«» 
'V'l'i.I^ti.  fovirnor  mntMl 

of  C«n«di,   104,   104,   194: 

ud  tuuttioii,   lOS,   110- 

■nd  nrlprocit].  Its 
"Erie  Ditch,"  40 
EiUiof,  Admiral  d',  M 
Ettitij.  WillUm,  SwnUry  of 

War*  4S 

''•i'K'IS.''  C-  W.'  on  Joint 
High  Commiuion.  fSl 

Falkrmnd,  tord,  governor  of 
Nova  Scotia,  Hit 

Family  Compact,  88,  70,  M, 

Pen'ian  Baldi,  144:  claim 
-.•p.'"*  V""*!  Suieifor,  leo 
Fielding,  W.  8..  in  Uurier'i 
Cabinet,  SOI.  «13;  negotjatei 
„  treaty  with  France,  US 

Fifty.four  forty  or  aght."  ISO 
Finance,  money  and  banking, 

«0-«l;  war,  «70-71 
Fith,  C.  R.,  r*#  Pnik  of  Em. 
»>r«,  cited,  11«  (ncte),  lil 
(note),     HO     (note),     ISO 
(note),  «S0  (note) 
Fuher,  Premier  of  Aiutrali- 
on  eitabliihment  of  Imperial 
Parliament,  MS 
Fiiher,  Charlu,  reform  leader 

in  New  Bruntwick,  lis 
Fiifaeriea,  24,  I4I)-«1,  170-81, 

«S7-»8! «»  oi»o  Sealing 
Fleming,  Sir  Sandford,  144 
FoM,  B.  M.,  and  reciprocity, 

«4» 
Fo«ter,    General    J.    W.,    on 
Joint  High  Commiuion,  Sll 
Foi,  C.  J.,  debate  on  F  ench 

Revolution,  SI  (note) 
France,  loiea  control  in  New 
World,    l-«;   and    War   of 
I81«,  44;  treaty  with,  104, 
•4S 


no 


Franklin,  Benjamin,  tO 

Fraaer,  Simon,  140 

Frafer  River,  Spasiarda  ex. 
plor^  4t:  Mackeaaie  on.  48; 
diieovery  of  gold,  147 

French-Canadiani,  inereai*  un. 
der  Britiah  rule,  80  (note); 
rettrictioni  in  Ontario,  177- 
and  South  African  War, 
«I8;  attitude  in  Great  War, 
MO-41;  M.  «/„  Lower 
Canada 

French  Revolution,  81,  SO 

Gallatin,  Albert,  peace  com- 
niMiioner  at  Ghent,  41 

Gait,  A.  T.,  1S4,  1S«;  and  an- 
nexation, 110;  Miniiter  of 
Finance,  U4;  quoted,  ISO- 
)Sl;attd  Confederation,  141; 
""rei  from  public  life.  140; 
on  liiheriei  commiuion,  1«»; 
and  control  of  treaty-making. 

Gambler,  Jamei,  Britiih  peace 
^  conimiuioner  at  Ghent,  SI 
Oeneva  Tribunal,  161 
George.  Fort,  Americans  with- 
draw from.  48 
Gwirgia.  loyalint  n  Revolution, 

86 
German!  in  \,e.     la,  8-4 
Germany,   treaty  affecting 
tariff,  li'J.  813.  814;  menacj 
of,     «3;    tariff    war    with 
Canada,  844 
Ghent,  Treaty  of.  Sl-St 
Gladitonc,  W.  E.,  104.  ISS 
Vtobe,      Toronto.      ISO,      149> 
quoted,  187  ' 

Gore,  Sir  Francii,  lieutenant 
governor    of    Canada,     37 
(note) 
Goiford.  Lord,  governor  gen- 
eral of  Canada,  86 
Goulburn,  Britiih  peace  com- 
missioner at  Ghent,  41 
Gourlay,  Robert,  78 
Grand  Trunk  Railway,  lis,  167 


890 


INDEX 


"'?,"••  ^•.^-  ''"ouncw  Can.. 

diaa  ntherin  policy,  1«« 
Onjr,  CapUia  Robert,  M 
Gny,  Sumtor,  on  Joint  Hlih 

Commiailon,  Ml 
Gfmt   Britain,   probknu   be- 

ouMtbod  by  Tr«ty  of  P«rli, 

T-Sj    ud    Anwrictn    Civil 

W»r,  lU-2li  m  tin  Tariff, 

War  of  181t 
Rraat    Lakn,    limitation    of 

naval  armament  on,  M 
Oreal  Northern  Railroad,  171, 

»3T 
Great  War,  US  tl  mo. 
Creelu  In  Canada,  *W 
Greeley,  Horace,  183 
Grenville,  William,  quoted.  SO, 

89 
Grey.   Sir   Edward,  Secretary 

01  State  for  Foreim  Affain, 

no 

Guadeloupe,  Great  Britain  con- 
»men  retaining,  8 

Ilaiermaa,  SS 

Hague  Court  wttlea  north- 
eaitern  fiaheriei  queitioD. 
«S7-88 

Halifax.  Engliah  aettlera  in,  S, 
iS;  naval  college,  M5,  MT 

Hampton,  General  Wade,  de- 
feat, «S 

Hay,  John,  ISO 

Head,  Edmund,  Governor  of 
Canada,  87 

Head,  Sir  Francii  Bond,  Lieu- 
tenant Governor  of  Upper 
Canada,  86,  87 

Hearat  papers  and  reciprocity. 

Herald,  New  York,  Ue,  U7 
Herichell,  Lord,  on  Joint  High 

ComniiHion,  831 
Highlandera  in  Canada.  4,  32 
Hill,  J.  J.,  171,  gs7 
Hincki,  Sir  Frandi,  134 
Hindu   migration   to  Canada. 

«i«-<8 


Holton.  Lather,  IM,  188 
Home  Rule,  Iriab.  178 
Howe,    Joiepb,    118-18,    U«, 

143,  IM 

Hudion'i  Bay  Company,  do- 

maluof,  8;  and  North- Wut 

Company,    48.     IJT;    Lord 

Selkirk  and,  38;  Dominion 

buya  righta  of,  U4-J8 

Huihea,  General  Sir  Sam,  886 

Hull.  General  William,  aurren- 

dcr  at  Detroit,  47 
Hull  founded,  30 
Hume,  Joieph.  88 
Huntington.  L.  S.,  168.  igi 

Immigration    to    Canada.    4. 

34-30;  encouraged.  B.  804 

800-07;    to  the    We.t.  80S; 

from  Europe.  803-00;  from 

United    Stateii.     800,    837; 

from    Great    Britain.    807; 

reitrictioni.  808,   833,  836- 

838;  Chineae  and  JapaneM, 

834-36;  Hindu,  836-38 
Imperial    Conference    (1807) 

888;  (IBM).  883,  888;  (1817), 

837-38,  271 
Imperial    Federation    League. 

189-81,  184 
Imperial  cooperation,  policy  of. 

818-13 
Indiani,  reserve  for,  8;  Great 

Lakei  region  reaerved  for,  8 

(note) 
Intercolonial     Railway,     134 

810  (note) 
Iri«h  in  Canada,  4,  807 
Italians  in  Canada.  803 
Italy,    tariff  agreement   with. 

83S 
Iiard.  General  George.  48 

Jackaon,  Andrew,  at  New  Or- 

Iean>,31 
Jameaon,  Sir  L.  S.,  of  Cape  of 

Good  Hope,  888 
Japan,  immigration  agreement 

with.  833-30 


INDEX 


JvfftrtoB,    Thoaaa,    on    cod- 

qunt  of  Cauda,  4< 
i«»^'   EaUtaa  coatrovtray, 

hiti.   Sir   Uala,   oa   AUika 

boudary  tribuaal.  tM 
J*wa  iD  Canada,  I0« 
JokaatoB,  R.  M..  WttMnflon 

aad  Si*  Coaira^a  I'a  /»r»i«, 

chad,  l»  (Bota) 
Joint  Bi(h  Cenmiaaion,  U\, 

fS9 

Kamn,  J.  A.,  on  Joint  BI|h 
Commiuion,  ffSI 

Kallogf,  E.  H.,  I«( 

Kampt,  Sir  Jamaa,  84 

Kinfaton,  8rat  Parliamant 
maeu  at,  m 

Kittaon,  N.  W.,  171 

KrUgar,  Preiidant,  iaauaa  ul- 
timatum, tia 

La  FonUina,  L.  H.,  lit,  lOS, 
104,  134:  oppoiea  annexa- 
tion. 110 

La  Vtrendrjre,  p.  G.  de 
Varennei,  Sieur  de,  it 

Labrador  raitored  by  Quebec 
Act,  IS 

Lacliine  canal,  59 

Lacolle'i  Mill,  Wilkinaon  at.  40 

Lafayette,  Marquia  de,  plan 
01  invasion  of  Canada,  it 

Land,    »»,  32-33,  34,  71-7«. 

tos-ot 

Lanadowne,  Marquis  of,  Secre- 
tary  of  Foreign  Affairs,  UO 

Larned,  and  cuatoma  union. 
183 

Uurier.  Sir  Wilfrid,  Liberal 
leader,  184;  a  Catholic,  1C8; 
Quebec  majority  for,  U8; 
Premier,  SOO;  Cabinet,  201- 
Tiaits  England,  «14:  and 
imperialism,  (18;  dominates 
Colonial  Conference,  ttl, 
Itt;  aubmita  Naval  Service 
Bill  (1810),  «(4;  on  Joint  I 


191 


Bigk  Coamiaaion.  Ml;  op. 
joaaa  ceucfipUoa.  Ml-H, 

Laaaiaiii,  Radolpba.  Mgotiataa 
a|rMaaat  with  Japaa.  lU- 

Lawia,  Cornawall,  on  aapam> 
UoB  of  Caoada  frea  Gmt 
Britain,  18t 

Liquor  trafle,  eoBtrol  of,  IM 

Liverpool,  Lord,  Craig'a  latter 
to,  37 

Lodge,  B.  C,  oa  Alaaka  bound- 
ary  tribunal,  tS4 

LotbiDi4ra,  aiegnaur  in  I^war 
Canada,  37 

Louiabourg,  Franch  tortreaa  at.3 

Lount,  Samuel,  rabal  leader  in 
Canada, M 

Lowe,  Robert,  on  separatioa 
of  Canada  from  Great 
Britain,  133 

Lower  Canada,  political  con- 
flict, 77-87;  population,  80 
(note);  armed  rebellion.  88- 
00:  baniahment  of  leaders, 
M;  French-Canadian  prob- 
lem, 84-M;  union  measure 
drafted,  87;  named  Canada 
East,  88  (note);  feudal  ays- 
tem  abolished,  137;  m  alto 


Lumbering,  48 
Lundy'a  Lane,  48 
Lunenburg,  Germana  in,  4 

Macdonald.  J.  A..  134:  Liberal- 
Conservative  leader,  134- 
136,  138,  188,  148.  148,  140. 
148;  and  Confederation.  141; 
Britiab  eommiasioner,  100, 
101;  election  (187t),  ISO; 
and  Pacific  Scandal,  188; 
and  Canadian  Paciflc.  170; 
and  Mowat,  174;  and  reci- 
procity, 184;  and  Uriff,  181; 
and  preferential  trade,  184: 
election  (1881),  184;  death, 
180 


aot 


INDEX 


MicdonaJd,  Ssadteld,  144 
Macdonell,  CoIoikI,  M 
McOounll,  William.  Reform- 
er ID  Centd*  Wett,  I4( 
MeGee,  D'Arcy,  142.  14» 
Micluy,  compenion  of  Mac- 

kenile,  4S 

Maekeniie,    Alexander,    jour- 

Key  to  PaciEc  eoaat,  48.  lit 

Mackeniie,  Alexander,  Liberal 

leader,  150.  161,  IBS,  lOS; 

Premier,  IfiS,  l«»i  and  tariff, 

170;     and      treaty-making 

power.  191 

Mackeniie,  W.  L.,  7»,  77,  88, 

90 
Mackintoih,  Sir  Jamei,  Whig 

leader.  88 
McLeod,  Alexander.  91-9* 
MacNab,  Allan,  £9 
Maephenon,  D.  L,  109, 187 
Maitland,  Sir  Peregrine,  Cover- 
nor  of  Upper  Canada,  69.  77 
Manitoba,  admitted  to  Con- 
federation.     156;     political 
difference!.  174;  ichool  quea- 
tion.  177,  197-98,  tOt 
Marriott,     Jamee,     Advocate 
General    of    England.    15; 
quoted.  18 
Maiirea.  Francit.  15;  quoted,  9 
Matthewi,  Captain  John.  74. 

7« 
Matthewi.  Peter,  rebel  leader 

in  Upper  Canada,  »» 
Mennonitei,  35 
Mercier,  Honort,  176 
Menvry,  Quebec.  40 
Merritt,  W.  H.,  lit 
Metcalfe.Sir  Charlei,GoTernor 
General  of  Canada,  103-04, 
134 
Methodiita  in  Canada,  35 
Michigan  Lake,  Canadian  vei- 

leli  panted  use  of,  123 
Michilimackinac    in    War    of 

181t,  49 
Military  Service  Act  (1917), 
«63,  265 


Milner,  Sir  Alfred,  Britiah 

•tateiman.  815 
Milnei,  Lieutenant  Governor 
of  Lower  Canada,  quoted,  66 
Molioa,  John,  rum  iteamer 
between  Montreal  and  Que- 
bec, 59 
Molioni,  commercial  leaden 
in  Montreal,  110 

Monck,  Lord,  Governor  of 
Canada,  148 

Montgomery,  Richard,  expedi- 
tion  against  Canada,  80 

Montreal,  captured  by  Mont- 
gomery. 80;  in  War  of  1818. 
47.  50;  pro-Southern  senti- 
ment in,  188 

Moodp',  John,  Tke  Railroad 
BuMm,  cited,  171  (note) 

Moraviantown.  rrocter'i  de- 
feat at,  47 

Morin,  A.  N.,  185 

Morrii,  Premier  of  Newfound- 
land, quoted,  888 

Mowat,  Oliver,  Premier  of 
OnUrio.  166;  and  Mac- 
donald.  174;  in  Laurier'a 
Cabinet,  801 

Murray.  General  Jamei,  Gov- 
ernor of  Quebec,  11-14 

National   Policy    ("N.    P."). 

171,184 
National    Tranicontinental 

Railroad.  810  (note) 
Navigation  Act  of  1663,  64-65 
Navy  Island,  Mackeniie  leiiei, 

90 
Neilson,  John,  editor  of  Que- 
bec Oaulle,  79.  83,  85 
Nelson.  Robert,  rebel  leader, 

89.98 
Netherlands,  tariff  treaty  with, 

853 
New  Brunswick,  founded,  87; 

government,  88,   111.   145, 

148 
New  England,  immigration  to 

Canada  from,  4,  54;  rela- 


New  England — Cmitimdtd 
lioni  with  Nov*  Scotia,  S; 
and  War  of  18K,  4< 
New   Orleani,   Andrew   Jack- 
ion  at,  51 
New  York,  Loyaliit  in  Revolu- 
tion, M 
New  Zealand,  and  South  Afri- 
can War.  218;  colonial  de- 
pendence   of,    2IS;    defenie 
meaaures,  ttO 
Newark,  Americana  burn,  48 
Newfoundland,  coloniea  given 
flahery  rights  in,  U;  with- 
draws from  Confederation, 
145;  not  tranaferred  to  Can- 
ada, 158 
Niagara,  in  War  oi  1812,  48; 

Loyaliitl  at,  27 
Niobt  (cruiaer),  225 
Niverville,  Chevalier  de,  42 
North  Atlantic  Trading  Com- 
pany. 204 
North-Weit  Company,  42,  48. 

156 
Nova  Scotia,  population,  4; 
Bntish  influences.  22-23; 
boundary,  24:  slaves  brought 
lo,  27;  Loyalist  majority. 
28;  government.  111.  112- 
IIS.  148;  and  Confederation, 
152-53;  tee  aUo  Acadia 

O'CaIhghan,  lieutenant  of 

_^  Papioeau.  88 

"Old  Tomorrow."  nickname 
of  Macdonald.  187 

OnUrio,  Canada  West  be- 
comes, 148;  and  provincial 
rijjhts,  174;  French-Cana- 
dian restrictions,  177 

Pacilc  Scandal,  188-88 

Pakenham,  General  Sir  Ed- 
ward,  at  New  Orleans,  51 

Panet.  Antoine.  and  respon- 
sible government,  83 

Papineau.  Joseph,  father  of 
t.  J..  80 


INDEX  29, 


Pajiineau,  L  J.,  reform  leader 
in    Lower    Canada.    80-81. 
83,  85,  88,  135 
Papinean,     Talbot,    grandson 

of  L.  J.,  261 
Paris,  Treaty  of,  1-2,  7 
Parnell,    C.    S.,    agitation    in 

Ireland,  178 
Ptttriotei.  Opposition  party  in 

Lower  Canada,  85,  88 
Peel,   Arthur   Wellealey,   Vis- 
count, and  McLeod  affair, 
82;  repeals  Corn  Laws,  108 
Pennsylvania,   Loyalist  in 

Revolution,  26 
Perry,  Peter.  74 
PlatUburg,  British  defeat  at, 

51 
Poles  in  Canada.  205 
lontiac  Conspiracy.  8 
Prairie  du  Chien  captured  by 

Canadians.  48 
Prevost.  General  Sir  George, 

failure  at  Plattsburg,  51 
Pnnce  Edward  Island,  British 
since  1718,  3;  St.  John  re- 
named. 29;  government.  28; 
land  policy.  28.  111-12;  and 
Confederation.  143;  with- 
draws from  Confederation, 
145.  151 
Proclamation  of  1788.  8  (note), 

Procter,    General,    defeat    at 

Moraviantown,  47 
Protection,  tee  Tariff 

Quakers  in  Upper  Canada.  35 
Quebec    (city).    Benedict    Ar- 
nold at.  20;  conference  at, 

Quebec    (province),    becomes 

British,     8;     Canada     East 

becomes,  148 
Quebec  Act  (1774),  16,  17,  40 

(note);     tee    alto    "Sacred 

Charter" 
Queenston  Heighu,  American 

defeat  at.  47 


S04 


INDEX 


Quctnel,  lupporUr  of  P*pin- 

uu,  8S 
QuinU,  Bay  of,  Loyaluti  on. 

«T.  M,  1* 

Rmilroadt,  <m  TruuporUUon 

Rainlmc  (cruiMr),  tU-ii,  U7 

Rsndolph,  John,  of  Rouoke, 
quoted,  4A 

Rebellion  Louet  Bill,  10<-07 

Keciproeity,  110.  Xtl-U,  IM- 
158,  184-8«,  CSC,  Ut-St 

Red  River,  forts  on,  7 

Redpatlu,  commercial  leaders 
in  Montreal,  110 

Reformers,  tte  "Clear  Grits" 

Religion,  M-U;  Clergy  Re- 
serves. »*,  71,  137 

Responsible  government,  08 
cl  tiq.;  in  Nova  Scotia.  112- 
IIS 

Revolutionary  War,  14.  2S-S4 

Rhodes,  C.  J..  sUtesman.  tli 

Rideau  canal.  S9 

Ricl.  Louis,  rebellion  OseS), 
155-A6;  second  rebellion. 
174-7S;  execution.  17S 

Roberts,  Lord,  in  South  Afri- 
can War,  217 

Robinson,  J.  B.,  69 

Rolph,  Dr.  John,  73,  88.  M 

Root.  Elihu,  aSO,  234 

Rose.  John,  ^and  annexation. 

,  100;  plans  joint  commission. 
1«0 

Ross.  General,  captures  Wash- 
ington, 31 

Ross,  Sir  George,  Premier  of 
Ontario.  MT 

AovfM,  political  party,  110. 
1S3.  ISO,  ISO 

Rouville,  seigneur  in  Lower 
Canada,  S7 

Royal  Military  Collage  estab- 
lished, ISO 

Aoiraf  Ifitliam  (steamboat),  SO 

Rush-Bagot  Convention,  S3. 
101.  «SI-3S 

Russell.  Lord  John,  Chancellor  I 


of  the  Exchequer,  M,  (8, 
08 

Russell,  Jonathan,  peace  com- 
missioner at  Ghent.  51 

Russia,  explorationsin  Canada. 
7.  42;  boundary  treaty  with, 
101 

Ruthenians  in  Canada,  lOS 

Ryerson,  Egerton.  88, 114 

Sackville-West,  Sir  Lionel,  170 

"Sacred  Charter"  (Quebec 
Act),  40,  83;  m  aUo  Quebec 
Act 

St.  Croik  River  as  boundary, 
117 

St.  Francis  Lake.  Loyalists 
settle  on.  27 

St.  John.  Island  of.  renamed 
Prince  Edward  Island.  CO- 
CO 

St.  Lawrence.  Loyalists  settle 
in  valley  of.  27;  need  for 
improvement.  82;  improve- 
ment. 98,  114;  Ameri'Mn 
vessels  granted  use  of.  ICS 

Salaberry.  Colonel  de.  37;  in 
War  of  181C  48.  52:  on  com- 
mission to  West.  loC-56 

Salisbur^r.  Lord.  178;  summons 
Colonial  Conference.  183 

San  Juan.  Island  of.  American 
claim  approved,  121 

Saskatchewan  River,  forts  on, 
7 

Scandinavians  in  Canada,  208 

"Scotch  pedlars,"  3< 

Scott,  SO 

Scott,  General  WinSeld,  40 

Scott,  Thomas,  killed  by  Riel, 
ISO 

Sealing,  suggested  restriction 
(1893),  187;  aettlemeat  of 
question  (1011),  CS8 

Seeord,  Laura,  S2-SS 

Selkirk,  Lord,  attempted  set- 
tlement of  West,  5S-S7 

Seven  Years'  War,  I 

Seward.  W.  H..  183 


INDEX 


SawcU,  Jouthsn,  40,  78,  82 
SAamofi  nptura  Ckuaf4akt, 

Sherwood,  09 

"Shopkeeper  Ariatocrac)',"  SO 

Shorlt  *nd  Doughty,  Docu- 
mentt  Relating  to  the  Con- 
ttitutioncl  Biatory  cj  Canada 
pS9-n01.  cited.  1«  (note) 

Sifton,  Clifford,  «01,  t04 

Simcoe,  J.  C,  lieutenant  gover- 

„  "Of  o'  Upper  Canada,  34,  70 
Slick,  Sam"  (Judge  Halibur- 
lon),  humorist,  4,  111 

Smith,  Adam,  and  colonial 
•yatem,  ti;  influence  on 
tariff,  108 

Smith,  p.  A.,  afterwarda  Lord 
Strathcona,  ISO.  171 

Smith,  Goldwin,  and  annexa- 
tion, 182-83 

Smuta.  General,  »7«;  quoted. 

South  African  War,  215-19 
Spain,  ezplorationa  on  Pacific 
coaat,   42;    Canadian   trade 
agreement  with,  192 
Spanish-American  War,  2S0 

Stanley,  Lord.  Colonial  Secre- 
tary, 101,  103 

Stephen,  George,  171,  173 

Stephenaon,  N.  W.,  Abraham 
Lincoln  and  ike  tjnion,  cit- 
ed, 127  (note)  J  The  Day  o/ 
the  Cot^ederaey,  cited,  129 
(note) 

Strachao,  John,  69 

Strathcona,  Lord.  217;  tee  alto 
Smith,  D.  A. 

Stuart.  Andrew,  79,  8S 

Stuart,  Jamea,  79,  83,  8 

Suffrage,  264 

Swiaa  fa  Canada.  M 

Sydenham,  Lord,  GoTcmor  of 
Canada,  86-99,  134;  and  re- 
aponaibla  government,  100- 
101,  102;  death,  101 

Tach4,  Biahop,  IM  | 


29S 


Taeh«,  Sir  fticnne,  142 
Taft,  W.  H.,  and  tariff,  244; 

3 noted,  tSO 
hot.  Colonel  Thomaa.  of 
Malahide,  35-33 
Tariff,  England  and  free  trat:-^, 
108;  protection  in  Uniied 
Statea.  102,  179;  party  iaane 
in  Canada.  109-70;  "Na- 
tional Policy,"  171,  184; 
Mckinley  Act,  184;  Ding- 
ley  Act.  187;  protection  in 
Great  Britain,  189,  221-22; 
Canada'a  right  to  control 
her  191,  213;  preferential 
trade,  194;  demand  for 
lower,  197;  banier  between 
United  States  and,  239-40; 
protectionist  aentiment  in 
C'!"»<1»...M0-4I;  Payne-Al- 
drich  bin,  242;  Canada'a 
bargaining,  253;  >«  alto 
Commerce,  Reciprocity 
Taschereau.  seigneur  in  Lower 

Canada,  37 
Taylor,  Sir   Henry,   supporta 

customs  union,  183 
Tecunueh,  47 

Thibault,  Vicar  General,  15S 
rhompaon,  David,  158 
Thompaon,  Sir  John,  196 
Thomaon,    C.    P.,   tee  Syden- 
ham, Lord 
Thornton,  Sir  Edward,  162 
Thorpe,  Judge,  of  Upper  Can- 
ada, 36.  37  (note) 
Tilley,  Leonard,  142,  145 
Timet,     the,     London,      126; 

quoted,  132 
Toronto,  capture  of.  47;  pro- 
Southern  aentiment  in.  128 
Torrancea.  commercial  leadera 

m  Montreal,  110 
Transportation,  early  develop- 
ment. 59-60;  improvements 
around  St.  Lawrence.  98. 
114;  railroads,  114-15.  171- 
173.  203.  209-10;  Pacific 
Scandal.  166-68 


MS 


INDEX 


Trnty  or  ITM.  U 

Tnnt  afftir,  1(7,  111 

Tapper,  ClurlM,  Caudian 
•tataauui,  141.  ISO,  MS, 
170,  IM;  and  Couredcratian, 
IMi  aagotiatet  vitii  Franct, 
IM 

Toner,  Gcorn,  oa  Aladu 
boondarjr  tribunaJ,  fS4 

tlftar  PrMbytcriam,  inmi- 
|[raaU  to  Canada,  4.  U 

United  Empire  JUiyaliati,  17, 
85 

United  State*,  attitude  toward 
rebellion  ia  Canada,  tl; 
bonndary  diaputei,  I1<-<I, 
U*-M;  Joint  Higli  Com- 
misrion  (ISM),  tSl-Si;  re- 
latione with  Canada  during 
Great  War,  »H-7St  m  ain 
Annexation,  Filherica,  Re- 
ciprocity, Tariff 

Upper  Canada,  tonndation, 
(7;  religiouf  differencei,  S4- 
U:  land  policj.  W-3S,  71- 
72;  party  itrife.  SO-37,  «7- 
71.  73-77.  80,  87-«a  »0-»l. 
Mi  and  War  of  ISlt,  it; 
education,  •(;  diaabilitiet 
affectinf  American  Mttlen. 
7t-7S;  need  for  union,  61- 
M;  popular  uae  of  term.  08 
(note) 

Van  Egmoad.  rebd  leader,  M 
Van  Home,  William,  178.  (48 
Van    Heueelaer,    defeat    at 

Qneenitoa  Heigbti,  47 
Vaacouver,    Captain   George. 

Vancouver.  aati-Chinaee  riote 
in.  <U 


VaaeoaTer     Iilaad.     Britith 

territory,  Ifl 
Venecuela  epiMde,  187,  MS 
Victoria,     Queen,     Diamond 

Jubilee,  «14 

Waddiniton,  Alfred,  157 
War  of  18K,  44-58 
Ward,  Sir  Joaepb,  of  New  Zea- 
land, 888 
Waehiufton     captured     aad 

burned,  51 
Waahington,  Treaty  of,  Baber- 

ie*  dauiee  annulled,  180 
Webeter,  Daniel,  and  McLeod 

affair,   M;  negotiatei  witb 

Aabburton,  11$ 
Weekea,    barriater    ia    Upper 

Canada,  88,  87  (note) 
Welland  canal,  58 
Wbitney,  H.  M.,  M8 
WilKinton,     General     Jamei, 

campaign   in   Canada,   47- 

48,50 
Willcoclu,  Joiepb,  eberiff  ia 

Upper  Canada,  S«.  37  (note) 
William.  Fort.  Selkirk  eeiaea, 

57 
Wilmot,  Lemuel,  113 
Wiman,  Eraatui,  183 
Winnipeg.  Lake,  forta  on.  7 
Winter.  Sir  Jamei.  831 
Wokeley.  Colonel  Garnet.  156 
Workmana.  commercial  leadera 

in  Montreal,  110 
Wright,  Philemon,  8« 
Wyatt,    eurreyor    general    of 

Upper  Canada,  38. 87  (note) 

Yonge  Street,  84 
York,  tn  Toronto 
Young,  John,  183 
Yprca.  Canadiana  at.  «6«-47! 
«•  afM  Great  War 


